


Base: United

by hfleury



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mutants, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Boston Bruins, Buffalo Sabres, Calgary Flames, Carolina Hurricanes, Charlotte Checkers, Colorado Avalanche, M/M, New Jersey Devils, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Vancouver Canucks, depiction of violence (not graphic), major character death is temporary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-09
Updated: 2018-10-30
Packaged: 2019-05-20 06:59:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 30,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14889801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hfleury/pseuds/hfleury
Summary: (X-Men/Mutant AU) Love, Mutations, and the combined forces of two governments trying to wipe out your entire race. What could go wrong?-----After years of mutant documentation and experiments there was finally a cure, a shot that almost completely stopped mutant births. The shot quickly became obsolete and the governments of two nations were forced to create a special operations force tasked with killing all remaining mutants.Divided, they don't stand a chance.United, they just might win.





	1. TORONTO

**Author's Note:**

> thank you to @eafay70 and @astronewshq on tumblr for power suggestions!!
> 
> for ease of reading: the "identification numbers" used in the chapter are in the format of full seasons in the nhl [103 is one, 104 is two-five seasons, 105 is six+]-birth year-number. for example Connor McDavid has been playing for three seasons, was born in 1997, and had the number 97 so his identification number is 104-97-97.
> 
> also, the story is centered around leafs players (plus a few) and hurricanes players (plus a few), but more players will join as the story progresses :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> update: i changed the formatting and edited all of the spelling/grammer errors i could find. enjoy :)

“WHICH WAY?” Connor yelled, approaching an intersection. He was running just fast enough for the rest to keep up. “CAN’T YOU GUYS GO ANY FASTER?”

“FUCK I DON’T KNOW. LEFT?” Dylan yelled back, right behind him. “DON’T YOU THINK IF WE COULD RUN ANY FASTER WE WOULD?”

“ARE YOU SURE?” Travis asked, as they approached the corner.

“I JUST SAID I DON’T KN-” Dylan grabbed the back of Connor’s shirt and pulled him into an open door just as they turned the corner. Travis followed, shutting the door behind them. The boys ducked down behind a boarded window, Connor poking his head up just enough to see between the splintered boards. “Put your head down,” Dylan aggressively whispered.

“Shhhh,” Connor said hitting him roughly on the arm. Connor froze as the sound of several heavy footsteps passed the building. As soon as they were out of sight he slouched down and let out a sign of relief. “That was too close guys. We _have_ to be more careful.”

“Well if _someone_ hadn’t tried to pick a fight we wouldn’t have to-,” Dylan was cut off as he eyed Mitch who was laying in Travis’ arms, unconscious.

“He was just trying to stick up for us,” Travis said in between heavy breaths. “Mitch? Come on man, time to get up.”

Nothing.

“By the way, I don’t appreciate being left to carry his ass. We all know I’m the slowest, why do I have to carry him?”

“Because you’re the strongest, obviously,” Dylan said rolling his eyes. “How’s this. The next time Mitch passes out and we’re going to get murdered, we can just leave him there; problem solved.”

“Leave who?” Mitch said weakly, trying to lift his head.

“You, dumbass,” Dylan answered pushing his head back into Travis’ body. “Why the _fuck_ did you think it was a good idea to start a fight with the biggest group of mutant killers this side of the fucking border.”

“I wasn’t trying to start a fight, I just wanted to have a civil conversation, and anyways, what were they going to do? Kill us?” Mitch said in a loud whisper, struggling to keep his eyes open.

“YES. They’re called mutant _killers_ for a fucking reason, dude,” Dylan half yelled at him. “Oh, and next time you get hit in the middle of blinking out, maybe don’t faint. It’s a pain in the ass.”

“They hit him with a tranquilizer, he couldn’t help that,” Connor said making his way over to Mitch and Travis. “How are you feeling?” He asked placing a hand on Mitch’s shoulder.

“Fine. I think it’s almost out of my system,” Mitch said pushing himself off of Travis and against the wall. “Thanks for carrying me Trav.” Travis offered a weak smile and a shrug in response. 

“Good,” Connor said. “They’re probably going to head back to our place once they get tired of running, so we’re going to have to find a new one. Preferably _before_ sunset.” He turned back to look through the window, where the sunlight was shining brightly through the boards.

“Seriously?” Dylan said tossing his head back. “I like this one.”

“That’s the third place this month,” Travis said quietly. “We can’t keep moving like this.”

“Tell me about it. You guys aren’t the ones teleporting in and out to grab everyone’s shit.” Mitch rolled his eyes as he pulled a map out of his bag and laid it on his lap. The others leaned in and started to examine it. “Where to captain?”

“Don’t call me that,” Connor said grabbing a pen out of Mitch’s bag and putting an X on the map over the location of their last hideout.

“What about this building?” Dylan asked looking around. “Seems fine to me.”

“It’s too out in the open.” Connor shot him down. “What’s over here?” He turned to Mitch as he circled a small area across town with his finger. Mitch stood up and brushed off his pants.

“I’ll go check it out,” he whined. Quickly stretching out his arms as if he was preparing to do some kind of physical activity he glanced at the map and was gone in the blink of an eye leaving only a small cloud of blue smoke where he once stood.

The boys turned back to the map, unfazed by Mitch’s sudden disappearance. “While he’s checking out that area, Stromer can you go over here?” Connor circled another small area on the map.

“I guess.” Dylan said standing up. “Any specifics? Room service? Ocean view?” He snorted at his own joke. For a split second his body seemed to be a round blur of flesh tones and then suddenly he was a crow, flying between two of the boards on the window.

“Every time he does that I cringe,” Travis said rubbing his arm. “It’s a little weird, right? I can’t be the only one who thinks that’s weird.”

“Coming from a guy who’s half rock? Yeah. Totally weird,” Connor smirked.

Travis let out a small laughed. “To be fair though, I’ve never eaten trash. Pretty sure Dylan has.”

“Oh, I’m _sure_ he has.” Connor said laughing. “Anyways, when they get back we can check-” He was going to suggest a new area to look at, but before he could Mitch reappeared with another cloud of blue smoke. 

“I found an apartment building where the top floor is completely empty. The elevator doesn’t go all the way to the top and the door from the stairs has been welded shut.”

“Welded shut?” Travis asked. “Are you sure that’s safe to live in? There’s probably a reason someone would shut down an entire floor of their building and it’s probably bad.”

“Did you see anything weird up there?” Connor asked.

“I mean, not really?” There were a few rats here and there, but nothing too bad.”

“I’m not spending two weeks trying to get rats out of a building again.” Dylan said, swooping back into the room and taking his human form. “The place I found is probably an abandoned warehouse, but it’s pretty nice. Only one entrance, completely open concept, a bunch of weird machinery everywhere. There’s a family of raccoons living in the back, but they’re not hurting anything.”

“I really don’t want to live with _another_ family of raccoons. We already have you, shouldn’t that be enough?” Travis said with a smile.

“Haha. Super funny Trav,” Dylan said rolling his eyes. “The place is in the middle of nowhere, seems a lot safer than living in a building with a bunch of other people in the middle of town.”

“True, but if something happens, being surrounded by people may be the only thing that would keep someone from killing us. If we’re out in the middle of nowhere there will be-” Travis started his point, but before he could finish, he stopped. His eyes glazed over and his body was perfectly still for a moment. 

“Ummm Trav? You good?” Mitch asked, waving his hand in front of Travis’ face. Travis snapped his head in Mitch’s direction, his eyes turning from the usual brown to a dazzling shade of blue.

“Mitchell Marner, identification number 104-97-16. Teleportation.” Travis said, his face expressionless and his voice monotone. “Connor McDavid, 104-97-97. Enhanced Speed.”

“Travis? What the fuck are you doing? What are those numbers?” Dylan asked, grabbing his arm. Travis grabbed him back, much rougher than Dylan had.

“Dylan Strome. 103-97-19. Animal Morphing and Imitation.” Travis looked down at his hands, focusing on the hand that was completely rock. “Travis Dermott. 103-96-08. Stone Mimicry.” He closed his eyes and turned his head towards the wall. “Got all of those? Any more of them? Good. Thank you.” He opened his eyes and turned back to the group. “I’m sorry for the sudden intrusion, but I don’t have a lot of time. My name is William, I’m part of a group of mutant who are trying to get rid of the people who have been threatening you. We need you to-”

“How do we know this isn’t a trap?” Dylan asked, cutting him off.

“Why would this be a trap?” Travis, _William_ , asked. “What would I possibly gain from this? Killing you? Why would I go through the trouble of taking over your friend’s mind just to potentially trap four relatively harmless nobodies?” Dylan scowled.

“He has a good point,” Mitch said nodding.

“What do you want?” Connor asked.

“I want to meet.”

* * *

“Sorry. You what?” Auston said, raising his head to look at the cell beside him. It seemed like every other week he was captured by a bunch of mysterious men and taken to a different dark room for god only knows what. This time he was tossed into a cell that seemed to be made out of solid titanium, something that would be no match for his optic blasts.

“I can get us out of here,” The stranger beside him whispered with a smirk. Auston had no idea who he was or how he had gotten there, he was just happy that he wasn’t alone. “You in?” Auston shrugged. “I’ll take that as a yes. Just be quiet and do what I say.” The stranger looked around, checking for any sign of life. It had been almost midnight when Auston had been caught, so he doubted anyone was there. “Ready?” Auston nodded. The stranger took a deep breath and walked forward from the back of his cell, passing through the metal in front of him with ease. Auston’s eyes widened.

“Sick,” He said under his breath. The stranger obviously heard, and smiled in Auston’s direction.

 “Come to the front and give me your hands,” He said moving towards Auston’s cell. Auston did as he said, moving quickly to meet the stranger. He stuck his hands through the cell’s bars and grabbed Auston’s forearms. He pulled him closer and closer to the bars. Auston closed his eyes just as his face met the cold metal and when he opened them again, he was nose to nose with the stranger, the cell completely behind him. Auston took a step back with a smile.

“ _Sick,”_  The stranger let out a small giggle and pulled Auston towards the wall behind them.

“Hold on,” He said as they passed through the wall. Auston barely had time to close his eyes. One second they were inside of a dark, damp building and the next they were outside looking at a busy intersection. “Come on. I have a place we can hide out for the night.”

“You know, you should at least buy a guy dinner before you invite him to your place. I don’t even know your name,” Auston said with a smirk. The stranger stopped dead in his tacks, his eyes wide.

“I, umm…” He stuttered.

“Dude. I’m kidding,” Auston laughed. The stranger let out a sigh.

“Oh. Good,” He said starting to walk again. “My name is Fredrick, by the way.” He stuck out his hand, trying to hail a cab. “Well, Freddie, my friends call me Freddie.” 

“I guess we’re friends then, Freddie. I’m Auston.” He returned the introduction. “Where are you taking me exactly?”

“Base,” Freddie said bluntly. A cab met them on the corner of the road and they both climbed in. Freddie muttered some instructions to the driver and they were off, driving in silence for what seemed like hours.

“Here is fine,” Freddie said to the driver. The cab slid to a halt and the two men climbed out of. Freddie dug into his pocket and paid for the ride quickly, muttering a quick word of thanks.

“We can walk from here, it’s not that far.” Auston shrugged and followed Freddie along a dirt path, which eventually lead it a sizable farmhouse surrounded by miles of emptiness. The house looked fairly new, with no sign of damage from the elements. Everything outside was neat and in its place, including two trucks tucked neatly into a garage. He followed Freddie up the stairs and to the door.

“Stand back, this thing gets really twitchy sometimes,” Freddie commanded as he rested one finger on the doorbell. Auston was going to question him, but as soon as he opened his mouth to speak a small screen flipped out from a few bricks on the home’s exterior. Freddie placed his hand on the screen, looking around impatiently. A quiet _ehhhhh_ rang from the screen. 

“Y _ou’ve got to be fucking kidding._ MO, GARDS.” Freddie snatched his hand from the screen and began banging on the door. “OPEN. THE. DOOR.”

“Who is it?” A voice called from deep inside of the home.

“Willy I swear to god if you don’t-” Freddie began as the door swung open.

“Good morning to you too,” A tall blonde boy was standing in the doorway with a rather large smile. “Who’s this? Wait. Let me guess.” The boy look Auston up and down. “Identification number 104-97-34, Optic Force Blasts, ummm…” The boy paused. “Matthews comma Auston?” Auston’s eyes shot open.

“How do you…” He began.

“Don’t be too impressed. He’s a telepath,” Freddie said pushing his way into the house. The boy shot Freddie a nasty look.

“I knew everything but the name. You think he knows his own identification number? I doubt it.” He turned back to Auston. “So, how was spending an entire night with Freddie? Hopefully he didn’t give you too much trouble,” he said with a smirk. “He gets grumpy when he’s tired. Oh, I’m William by the way.” He patted Auston on the back as he guided him into the house, locking the door behind them. “The other guys are in the kitchen, come one.”

“Alright,” Auston managed to say. “Um, where are we exactly?” 

“Base,” William said guiding him towards.

“Yeah I got that part. I mean what is it?” Auston pushed.

“I’m sure Mo can explain it better than I can,” William answered as they entered the kitchen. It was a large, open concept room with a breakfast bar separating the kitchen area from a dining room. A long table with a dozen or more chairs were laid out perfectly, with the table covered in papers. Two people sat there hovered over a binder filled to the rim with what looked to be important documents.

“Mo, Gards, this is Auston.” Freddie said as Auston and William entered the room. The two men sat up,greeting them with a smile.

“Welcome to Base, Auston,” One said. “I’m Morgan, this is Jake.” He gestured first to himself, then to the man sitting across from him.

“We call him Mo, and Jake is Gards,” William whispered as Morgan continued to speak.

“Hope you didn’t go through too much trouble to get here. Freddie was out for days trying to find you.”

“He was _looking_ for me?” Auston asked, cutting off Morgan’s sentence.

“Well, yeah. Willy, did you not tell him?” Jake asked.

“Nope,” William said with a slight smirk, turning towards the kitchen. “I’m going back to sleep.” Jake shook his head.

“Sorry about him, he’s an... acquired taste,” he said jokingly. “Morgan? You want to explain?”

“I guess,” Morgan said with a sign. “To give you the really short version, the people in power right now, basically North America’s entire governmental system, decided that mutants are a problem. They created a secret task force to capture and kill as many of us as possible, so we” he gestured to Jake “decided to gather up as many of us as we could so we can fight back.”

“So those people that keep grabbing me are trying to  trying to _murder me_?” Auston’s head was spinning.

“Yeah.” Jake said bluntly. 

“Why did they wait though? They’ve caught me like, three times already. Why didn’t they just kill me the first time?”

“They try and run tests on every mutant before they get rid of them. Take samples, some blood, scan your DNA, all that stuff. They’re trying to figure out how to completely stop mutant births. They had something, and it worked for a while, but it stopped a few years back. That’s partly why they created the task force.” Morgan talked as gently as he could. He knew hearing this couldn’t have been easy for anyone, especially not someone as young as Auston.

“Don’t worry though!” Jake said in a much more cheerful tone. “You’re completely safe here. We’re all mutants. We’re getting bigger, too. Willy is suppose to go out today and grab four more people.”

“Yeah. If he doesn’t scare the shit out of them again.” Morgan said with a sigh. “How many times have we told him to chill out with the body snatching?”

“The what?” Auston asked. “What’s body snatching?” They both let out a short laugh.

“It’s what we call Willy’s power,” Morgan explained. “He’s a telepath, but he’s kinda shit at it. Can’t really read people’s minds as much as he can just mess with their memories.”

“His main thing is body snatching. Body hopping? We honestly have no idea what to call it. He can put his consciousness into another person. Live their life, you know?”

“The weirdest thing is that you can’t remember. Once, he was inside of me for almost a week, when he finally left I couldn’t remember a thing. _He_ thought it was fucking hilarious.” Jake said rolling his eyes.

“Okay, cool. Um, good to know,” Auston said uneasily, taking a seat beside Morgan. “So, what do you two do?”

“What do you mean?” Jake asked looking to Morgan. “I mean, we cook and clean around here, and we scout mutants in the area.”

“I think me meant our mutations,” Morgan said, looking at Jake with a puzzled look. “Why would he care about us cooking?”

“That makes a lot more sense,” Jake nodded. “Im strong, Mo’s good at hiding.” He turned his head back down to the papers in front of him. Morgan looked like he was going elaborate, but shrugged it off.

“Feel free to wander around the house. We’ll show you where you’ll be staying tonight when the others get here,” Morgan turned back to the papers as well. Auston nodded and got up, going back to the entrance William had pulled him through what seemed like hours ago. Looking around, he noticed that the house was massive. From the door, there were rooms to the left and right, as well as straight ahead, the kitchen and dining room. There was also staircase to the right, so Auston decided to start there. Making his way up the stairs, he noticed several more doors at the top. Almost all of them were closed with small empty plaques beside each of them. Auston wandered around until he found an open door. _William A. M. J. Nylander_ was written in neat handwriting on the plaque outside. Auston peaked his head in to see see William sitting on a bed, surrounded by files.

“Hey Matthews. Actually, I'm going to call you Matts. That’s so much easier than Matthews,” He asked with a smile.

“Um, yeah, sure.” Auston shrugged.

“I’m about to get some new people, you wanna help?” Auston nodded, he wasn’t sure what helping would entail but he was curious.

“I’m not sure how I’ll be able to help, but yeah sure.” William pushed all of the files together and patted the space beside him. Auston joined him, being careful as he sat on the edge of the bed.

“So all you have to do is keep track of which of these I say,” He gathered the files and handed them to Auston. “It’s going to be a little weird to look at, but trust me, I’m not talking to myself,” He said with a smile. “Ready?” Auston nodded. William took a deep breath and closed his eyes. They sat there for a few seconds in silence, then suddenly, William’s eyes shot open and his head whipped towards the wall facing them. His expression was blank and his eyes were completely white. 

“Mitchell Marner, identification number 104-97-16. Teleportation,” he said, monotone and expressionless. “Connor McDavid, 104-97-97. Enhanced Speed.” Auston shuffled through the files, finding them both and putting them at the bottom of the pile.

“Dylan Strome. 103-97-19. Animal Morphing and Imitation.” William looked down at his hands, focusing on the left one. “Travis Dermott. 103-96-08. Stone Mimicry.” He turned his head back to Auston, his eyes back to normal.  “Got all of those?”

“Yeah,” Auston answered quietly, not sure if William actually wanted a response.  

“Any more of them?”

“No that was it.”

“Good. Thank you.” William’s eyes again went completely white as his head snapped back to the wall. “I’m sorry for the sudden intrusion, but I don’t have a lot of time. My name is William, I’m part of a group of mutant who are trying to get rid of the people who have been threatening you. We need you to-” He stopped and for a few seconds was completely silent.

“Why would this be a trap?” William asked the wall. “What would I possibly gain from this? Killing you? Why would I go through the trouble of taking over your friend’s mind just to potentially trap four relatively harmless nobodies?” Another pause.

“I want to meet. I’ll leave… him” William pointed to himself “with the address and directions. Be there before five o’clock.”His eyes slowly faded back to normal as he slouched against his headboard. “All done.”

“What did you do? Who were you talking to?” Auston questioned.

“I was talking to them,” William gestured to the files. “I jumped into 103-96-08. What’s his name?” Auston quickly checked the top file.

“Trav-”

“Travis,” William cut him off. “I jumped into Travis and told them we needed to meet. 103-97-19 tried to argue with me, but I think they’ll come. 104-97-97 and 104-97-16 seemed to be down.” Auston nodded.

“Should I go let Morgan and Jake know they’re coming?” He asked. William shrugged.

“I got it,” William said closing his eyes. Like before, his eyes shot open, completely white. “Mo. I told them to be here by five, we think they’ll come.”

“COULD YOU NOT JUST COME DOWN AND TELL ME THAT?” Morgan’s voice boomed through the house.

“Nah, this is way easier. Anyways, if they’re not here by then I’ll jump into 104-97-16 and just teleport them here.”

“One of them can teleport?” Auston asked searching through the files. “97- What?”

“Sixteen,” William answered. He flipped through the files and sure enough, _teleportation_ stuck out on the page like a sore thumb.

“Mitchell Marner” Auston read aloud. “twenty-one years old, projected beta short distance teleportation, projected beta enhanced speed unconfirmed. Born May 5th, from Markham, Ontario. Six feet tall, one-hundred and seventy five pounds-”

“I don’t need you to read out his entire file,” William said, his eyes now back to normal.

“Yeah, sorry.” Auston closed the file and placed it at the top of the pile. “Do you mind if I take these?”

“Just return them to Mo when you’re done.” William said with a shrug.

“Thanks.” Auston gathered the files and exited the room, closing the door behind him. He wandered further down the hall until he found an open door. Going inside, he found two beds neatly made with a desk at the foot of each bed. Tossing the files into the bed nearest the door, he opened Mitchell’s again. Auston wasn’t sure what it was about him, but something was different. Opening another one, he began to read aloud.

“Connor McDavid. Twenty-one years old from Richmond Hill, Ontario. Projected alpha level speed. Born January 13. Six feet and one inch tall.” He moved to the next file. “Travis Dermott. Twenty-one years old from Newmarket, Ontario. Projected beta level stone mimicry. Unconfirmed malfunction with left arm. Born December 22. Six feet tall.” He sighed. _How many mutants did they have files like this for? Was there one for him?_ He shook the questions and continued reading. “Dylan Strome. Twenty-one years old from Mississauga, Ontario. Projected alpha level animal mimicry and imitation. Born March 7. Six feet three inches tall.” Flipping through the pages, Auston was shocked. In every file, there were at least a dozen pages full of information. Reading anymore would have made him sick. How could someone possibly get that much information on a single person?

He decided to go back downstairs and return them to Morgan, not sure what else to do with them. He wandered down the stairs and back into the dining room, where Morgan and Jake were still sitting surrounded by open files and government documents.

“What are those?” Morgan asked as Auston placed the files onto the table beside him.

“The files you gave William. It’s the guys that are supposed coming today.”

“Oh. Thanks, Auston,” Morgan said, setting them aside. “How are you feeling? I’m sure this has been a lot to take in.”

“I’m good,” he answered with a sign. “I just… How can anyone get that much information about a single person. It’s crazy.” Morgan nodded.

“Yeah, it _is_ crazy. When the government decided that they wanted to start documenting mutant births, at first it was just a yes or no thing, but pretty soon after that they decided to document exactly what the mutation would be, and that meant running hundreds of tests and writing down _every single thing_ . That’s what half of those pages are about. The other half are all medical records, education records, stuff like that. All from that one fucking organization.” Morgan paused, looking at Auston. “I know that’s a lot of information all at once. But _this_ ” he gestured to the dozen or so files that he and Jake had spread across the table. “Is part of the reason we’re trying to fight back. No one should have this much knowledge about someone. It’s an invasion of privacy.” Auston nodded.

“How are you planning on fighting back? It’s not like they’ll respond to us just talking to them. 

“We’re not sure yet, but we’re working on a plan. We need to get a group together first, that’s why we brought you here,” Jake answered before Morgan had a chance to.

“Well whatever it is,” Auston said, taking a seat beside them. “I’m in.”

* * *

“Of course it’s down a dirt road,” Dylan said as the puff of blue smoke around him disappeared. “We’re going to be fucking murdered you know that, right? They’re going to tie us up, murder us, and eat us for dinner or something.”

“Will you stop?” Connor responded, hitting him on the arm. “We’re not going to be murdered, okay? Let’s just go knock on the door and if we get a weird vibe Mitchy can just blink us out. Right Mitch?”

“Unless they kill me first. Then you guys are on your own,” Mitch said with a smile. “What do you think Stromer? Think they’ll kill me first or you?”

“You’re not helping,” Travis sighed. “We’re _not_ going to die today.” The three boys followed Connor as he approached the door and weakly knocked.

“You want to do it a bit louder?” Dylan said, pushing his way to the door.

“I thought you didn’t want to go inside.”

“I don’t, but if we’re going to go in, you’re going to have to knock harder than that.” He balled his hand into a fist and pounded on the door.

“I heard you the first time,” A tall man with blue eyes answered the door. He was wearing grey shorts that were so short that they could barely be seen under his blue hoodie. “Welcome to Base.”

“You William?” Dylan asked, noticeably annoyed.

“The one and only.” William said, flashing a smile. “Come inside, Mo and Gards will explain everything to you and after that you can decide whether or not you want to stay.”

“Stay?” Mitch asked. “Like, stay here?”

“They’ll explain,” William said laizly. “Just follow me.” As he turned and walked into the house, everyone followed but Travis.

“Dude, come on,” Mitch whispered loudly.

“Give me a second,” Travis said, bending over and quickly untying his shoelaces. Mitch stood there for a second, almost shocked.

“What the hell are you doing, Trav?" 

“I don’t want to get their floor dirty.” Travis said matter-of-factly, Mitch nodded in agreement.

“Good point,” He kicked his shoes off, placed them against the wall beside Travis’, and quickly caught up with the others.

“What were you guys doing?” Connor asked. He and Dylan were already sitting at a long table with William and two other men.

“Travis had to take his shoes off,” Mitch said as if it were obvious. If Dylan had rolled his eyes any harder they would have gone into the back of his head.

“Of course he did,” he said, turning his attention back to the two other men at the table.

“Anyways,” One of them said, adjusting a pile of documents that were sitting in front of him. “I’m Jake, and this is Mo.” He gestured to the other man at the table. “We’re putting together a group of mutants to try and combat that group of people that keep chasing you guys.”

“You know who those creeps are?” Mitch asked, slamming his hands into the table.

“Well, not personally,” Morgan said, his eyes wide. “But we know they work for the government. Everything you need to know is in here.” He gestured to Jake, who passed each of the boys a file. Inside was a dozen pages listing everything they knew about the government operation. The room fell silent for several minutes while they read. 

“Holy shit.” Dylan whispered, closing the file. “That’s insane.” 

“They have files for everyone?” Travis asked. Jake nodded and gestured to the files that were piled beside them. “Can I see mine?” Jake looked to Morgan for approval before sliding Travis a small stack of files. Flipping through, Travis’ eyes shot open as the other boys leaned over his shoulder.

“ _Shit_.” Mitch said, almost impressed. “These are crazy accurate. Trav, how do they know about your arm? That’s _insane_.”

“Exactly,” Morgan said, standing up and circling the table. “They shouldn’t have this much information on anyone.” 

“Not to mention that they’re using it to murder people,” Jake added.

“How do you plan on stopping them?” Travis pushed the file down the table. “I mean, it’s the government of what, two separate countries?”

“I’m not going to sit here and lie to you guys,” Morgan said, beginning to pace the length of the table. “We don’t have a solid plan yet, and whatever we come up with is probably going to be dangerous. We’ll completely understand if you don’t want to stay, but we could really use your help.”

“I’m in.” Mitch said before Morgan could completely finish. “I don’t care how dangerous it is. If there’s even a chance we can get rid of these jerks, I say we go for it.” The rest of the boys began to shake their heads in agreement. 

“Me too.” Connor said. “We’ve got to stick together.” He turned to Dylan and Travis and offered them a weak smile. “We stick together, right?”

“I guess that means we’re in too,” Dylan said with a sigh. “Doesn’t look like we have much of a choice.”

“I’m not sure what I’ll be able to do, but I want to help,” Travis said with a nod. Morgan turned to Jake and William with a smile.

“Great. I guess we can set you guys up with rooms then. Willy, take them upstairs and fill in starting with the room beside Freddie’s,” Jake instructed. William let out a small sigh and nodded.

“Come on.” He got up and made his way out of the room with the others following. “It’s two people to a room, so you guys can fight it out.”

“I call _not_ rooming with Dylan,” Mitch shouted as they climbed the stairs. “Dibs on literally anyone else. Do you have a family of raccoons here? I’ll room with them before I room with Stromer.”

“I’ll go with him.” Connor said, rolling his eyes. “Trav, you good with Mitch?”

“Yeah!” Mitch answered for him. “Our room is going to be _way_ better than yours.”

“Those two are yours.” William lazily gestured to two doors. “This is mine, this is Freddie’s, that’s Mo’s, and there’s Jake’s. You guys can sort out the rest.” He turned and went into his room, closing the door behind him.

* * *

“Thank’s Mitch,” Connor said as he handed him the last of his belongings. The group had spent the last thirty minutes waiting for Mitch to blink back and forth from their old place to this one with all of their things.

"I would rather die than have to tote all of you guys’ shit to _another_ house.” Mitch said, gasping for air. 

“Cry baby,” Dylan said under his breath.

“Let’s try and stay at this one for a while then.” Connor said with a smile. Mitch nodded and walked out of the room, leaving Connor and Dylan alone to start unpacking.

“He’s acting like he didn’t know he would have to do that today,” Dylan snorted. “We were _literally_ house hunting this morning.”

“Give him a break,” Connor said, shoving his clothes into a drawer. “Blinking in and out that many times has to be exhausting.”

“He doesn’t have to complain about it, though,” Dylan shot back. “I wouldn’t.” Connor let out a huge snort.

“You’re telling me that if you had to tote all of our shit across town you wouldn’t complain about it?” Connor asked.

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you.” Dylan said, tossing a box onto his bed and approaching Connor who was sorting through a box of his own. He grabbed him from behind, wrapping his arms around his midsection.

“You’re a fucking liar.” Connor said, turning around to face him.

“Maybe I am. The question is, what are you going to do about it, captain?” Dylan asked, his tone hushed. Connor smiled and brought his face closer to Dylan’s, their lips almost touching. Just as Dylan leaned in to kiss him, Connor pushed him backwards onto his bed.

“Finish unpacking,” Connor said with a smile, turning back to his box.

“Dude! What a fucking tease.” Dylan pouted as he rolled off of the bed.

“Sorry,” Connor said with a shrug. “Maybe don’t lie next time.” Dylan let out a loud sigh and went back to unpacking.

* * *

 “You sure?” Auston asked. “I don’t want to intrude or anything.”

“Yeah! I mean, if you want to.” Freddie answered with a smile. “There’s already an extra bed in here, so why not?”

“Okay, yeah then, thanks.” Auston smiled. He had never had to room with anyone before, he had also never had any friends to room with, so he was excited to have both.

“The other guys are here now, the teleporter will probably go grab your stuff if you ask nicely. Pretty sure he’s right down the hall.”

“Mitchell?” Auston said a little too quickly. Ever since he had read his file, Auston hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him. “I’ll go ask. Thanks again, Freddie.”

“No problem, man. See you later,” Freddie said turning back to the book he was reading. Auston exited the room and turned to the left where he was immediately greeted by an arm made completely of rock. He felt himself begin to fall, but was suddenly stopped by something behind him.

“Oh shit! Dude, I’m so sorry,” The owner of the arm dropped the boxes he was carrying and took a few steps closer to Auston.

 “ _J_ _esus_ Trav. Were you trying to murder him?” A voice chirped from behind him. Auston jumped forward and turned to face the voice. It was Mitchell, surrounded by a light blue haze.

“I didn’t see him!” Travis defended himself. “I was going to push the door open- if you would carry your own shit maybe I would be able to see.”

“I just carried _your shit_ half way across the province,” Mitch yelled. “The _least_ you could do is take mine into the room.”

“Are you okay?” Travis looked towards Auston, who was holding his stomach in discomfort.

“Oh, umm, yeah. I’m fine. You’re Mitchell right?” He asked, directing his attention back to the boy behind him. Travis snorted as he picked up the boxes he had dropped.

“Did you just call him _Mitchell_?" 

“Yeah?” Auston questioned. “Is that not your name?”

“It is,” Mitch answered, his face beginning to turn a shade of light red. “People usually just call me Mitch. It sounds like less like a shitty hair stylist.” Auston nodded with a small smile.

“Well Mitch, I was wondering - I mean if you have time,” Auston stuttered. “Do you think you can help me grab my stuff? It’s across town.”

“Of course!” Mitch said with a toothy smile. “Just show me where it is and I can bring you there.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a tattered map. Auston searched for a second before pointing to an area on the map that seemed to be miles away from any road. 

“Seriously?” Travis huffed. “We basically have to beg him to get out stuff when we move.”

“There’s not even a road there, are you sure?” Mitch asked, ignoring Travis’ comment. Auston nodded and with a shrug he and Mitch were floating. For a split second everything was dark and then they were standing in the middle of Auston’s home. Auston immediately fell to his knees.

“I forgot to warn you,” Mitch said looking around the room. “Blinking for the first time is really weird.”

“Weird?” Auston huffed. “It feels like there was a tornado inside of my body.” 

“Sounds about right,” Mitch was already wandering around the small building, picking up random objects and inspecting them. “What is this place?”

“It’s an abandoned convenience store I think,” Auston gestured to the counter that was tucked neatly beside the door. “I figured since there were no main roads here it’d be harder for them to find me.” He walked to the back of the room and grabbed two bags. “This is it.”

“That’s all you want to bring?” Mitch questioned. “You sure? I don’t mind making a couple of trips.”

“Yeah, I’m sure.” Auston nodded. “All of my belongings are in these bags, makes it easier to move.”

“Alright. Let’s go then.” Mitch grabbed Auston’s arm, preparing to blink. “Wait, I want that.” He quickly shifted to the closest wall and grabbed a poster off of the wall. It was a vintage Canadian Pacific poster featuring a moose standing in a lake. “What? I think it’s cool.”

* * *

“What do you think, can you do it?” Jake yelled from the kitchen. The other boys were in the dining room setting up for their first meal as a group, with the exception of Morgan, who was also in the kitchen.

“I can do it,” William answered matter-of-factly. “It’s just a matter of whether or not they’ll answer. I’ve never tried to communicate with another telepath before.”

“You found another telepath?” Mitch asked. “Sick.”

“Yeah, the only problem is that they’re thirteen-hundred kilometers away in a _completely different country._ I’ve never tried to connect to someone that far away, let alone hop into them.” 

“Wait, they’re in the states?” Auston asked.

“Yeah. I don’t know exactly where, but last time I was able to connect with them they were traveling from Saskatchewan back over the border. The farthest I could track them was Ohio but I’m pretty sure that’s not where they stopped.”

“We have to try.” Morgan said, carrying a large pot into the room and setting it in the middle of the table. “From what we’ve been able to gather, there’s a group on the coast trying to do exactly what we’re doing. If we can team up-" 

“Yeah, I get it.” William said. “You have files on any of them?”

“None are confirmed. They do a good job of staying hidden and out of trouble.” Morgan reached under the table and pulled out several file folders. “This guy _might_  be the leader.” Dylan reached over and grabbed the file from Morgan.

“Jeffrey Skinner? What kind of a name is that?” Dylan laughed. “Projected alpha level Municipality, _geez_. If the file is right, this guy can be, like, twenty places at once.” 

“Who’s the telepath?” William asked, yanking the file from Dylan’s hands.

“Again, I’m not sure but,” Morgan passed another file down the table. “It could be this guy.”

“Nolan Patrick, projected beta level telepathy and alpha level vocal manipulation.” Connor read aloud before passing the file down to William.

“What does that mean? He can change his voice?” Jake asked, setting the rest of the food onto the table. 

“Basically,” Freddie answered.

“So we’re doing this now?” William asked, filling his plate.

“If you’re up to it,” Morgan answered. “The sooner we contact them, the sooner we can figure out what to do.”

“Wait,” Freddie almost shouted as he jumped out of his chair. “I made something that might help.” He ran out of the room and returned a minute later carrying a mess of wires connected to a helmet and two large black boxes. “If this thing works it will boost your signal to four times the usual.”

“Is it safe?” William asked, inspecting the helmet.

“Yeah… probably.” He said under his breath.

“Probably?”

“You’ll be fine,” Freddie assured him as he started connecting the wires to their appropriate outlets. “Oh! It will also allow us to see what you’re seeing.” He opened one of the black boxes to reveal a projector.

“Okay, now I definitely don’t trust it.” William said, pushing the helmet away from him.

“You’ll be fine.” Freddie repeated. “I’ve been testing it for months.”

“But never on a telepath?” Morgan asked. Freddie shrugged and continued to set up his device. He opened the other black box, which contained what seemed to be a control panel, and placed it beside William, where he took a seat.

“Okay, this should be right, all you have to do is put the helmet on. I’ll take care of the rest.” Freddie said with a smile as he picked up the helmet and forced it into William’s hands.

“If this kills me I _will_ come back to haunt you.” William said, slowly putting the helmet onto his head. Freddie nodded with a smile as he turned on the panel. It immediately started to softly hum and blink. Freddie took a deep breath. 

“Ready?” William nodded and closed his eyes.

“Let’s just get this over with.” The machine let out a loud buzz before the projector flicked on, projecting a blur of multi-colored shapes onto the empty wall. After a few minutes the shapes formed into a landscape, which turned into a large building, then a room, and finally into a group of people. “Got ‘em.” William’s eyes shot open, his iris’ fading into white.

“That’s the telepath, Nolan,” Travis pointed out, comparing the him to the file.

“Shit. That means I jumped into the wrong person.” Willy said under his breath. “ _Who the fuck am I in?”_ He turned his head and the projector mimicked, showing the others who were in the room. In total there were five people, including the person William was currently inside. They’re mouths were moving, but the projector wasn’t making any noise.

“Is there sound on this thing?” Mo said, collecting the files of everyone else he saw.

“Yeah, hold on.” Freddie said, rapidly tampering with the control panel. 

“WHAT’S HAPPENING TO HIM, NOLAN?” The volume was almost unbearable. Freddie frantically began flipping switches, trying to turn it down.

“I don’t know. He just, zoned out. I’ve never seen anything like it.” The projector's sound decreased as Freddie let out a sign.

“Look at his eyes.” The boy sitting across from William said. “They changed colors.”

“Did they?” Yet another voice asked, getting closer to the projection. “They’re still blue.”

“It’s a different shade,” the first responded. “Trust me, I've been staring at them since he got here.”

 “Sounds like someone has a crush,” someone else said from the other side of the room.

“Shut up, Brock.”

“Which one of you is the telepath?” William finally asked, already knowing the answer. His question was echoed on screen at almost the exact same time, only coming from the voice of whoever he was inside. Everyone’s eyes shifted to Nolan. “Nolan Patrick, identification number 103-98-19. Do you know who I am?”

“Of course he knows who you are Haydn. What are those numbers? Why are you talking like that?” someone responded before Nolan could. 

“Brock McGinn, 103-94-23. That’s who _he_ is.” William pointed to himself. “Patrick, do you know who _I_ am?”

“You’re that telepath, aren’t you?” The boy beside him asked. “Nolan, didn’t you say something about sensing someone yesterday?”

“Yeah, but-” Nolan began to speak, but William cut him off.

“Very perceptive. Jeff Skinner, identification number 105-92-53, correct?”

“Yeah,” Jeff said cautiously. “What are those numbers?” 

“I don’t have time to answer your questions,” William said. “My-” his eyes faded back to normal as he turned to Morgan, “team? Mo, what would you call us?” 

“Team is fine,” Morgan answered.

“Great," William smiled, his eyes again turning white. "My _team_ needs to meet with you.”

“Who were you just talking to? Who is Mo?” The person across from him asked.

“Noah Hanifin, 104-97-05. I told you, I don’t have time to answer your questions. Come meet with us and we’ll tell you whatever you want to know.”

“How do we know this isn’t a trap?” Brock asked. “Skinny they could work for-”

“I guarantee you I don’t work for the government. Do you really think they’d have a mutant working for them? My friends and I-”

“The government?” Nolan questioned. “Are you saying that the people trying to kill us are-”

“Look, I’ve already said too much. Will you come or not?” William cut him off. Every head in the room turned towards Jeff.

“Fine, but if we feel like something’s off, we’re gone.”

“Sounds fair.” William said with a smile. “Where is your current location?”

“Auburn. It’s just outside of Raleigh.” Noah answered.

“Mitch can you get us there?" William turned to Mitch, his eyes barely fading before Mitch nodded. "Perfect. If one of you can point it out on a map, we can meet you there.” Brock quickly looked to Jeff for verification before pulling out his phone and showing William where they were.

“We’ll be there within the hour, pleasure doing business with you.”


	2. CAROLINA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New mutants, a crush, and a whole lot of vines.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone on tumblr who suggested powers for Nico! 
> 
> I tried a different way of formatting, let me know if this is easier to read! (if it is i'll probably go back and fix the first chapter lol)

“So, Haydn,” Brock said, plopping down beside him on the couch and draping his arm over the back. “How was your first night in the Warehouse?”

“Fine,” Haydn responded with a smile. “It’s a lot quieter than I’m used to, but I’m sure I’ll get adjusted to it.”

“That’s good to hear,” Jeff said with a toothy smile. “Everyone introduced themselves, right?”

“Yeah,” Haydn answered. “I didn’t think there would be so many people here.”

“It’s only ten people, counting you,” Noah said from across the room. “Not enough to fight back, but we’re getting there.”

“We could take a couple hundred of them,” Brock said with a smirk. “They’re all just regular people with guns, after all.”

“I’m not here to get shot,” Haydn said, his smile fading.

“Noah wouldn’t let that happen,” Brock said with a laugh “Would you, Noah?”

“Shut up, Brock.”

“Do you guys hear that?” Nolan asked, turning his head towards where he thought the noise was coming from.

“Hear what?”

“Someone’s here, I don’t know where but I definitely just heard a-” As he spoke, Haydn’s head shot forward, his face completely blank.

“Haydn, man, are you okay?” Noah asked, laughing. “That looked like you were just possessed or something.” Haydn’s face remained expressionless as his eyes darted around the room.

“Shit. That means I jumped into the wrong person.” He said staring at Nolan, his voice monotone. “ _Who the fuck am I in?”_

“What are you talking about?” Brock asked, scowling.

“What’s happening to him, Nolan?” Jeff asked, turning to Nolan who seemed to be in a state of shock.

“I don’t know, he just... I’ve never seen anything like it.” Nolan stuttered.

“Look at his eyes.” Noah said, leaning in closer to Haydn’s blank face. “They changed colors.”

“Did they?” Jeff asked, getting awkwardly close to his face. “They’re still blue.”

“It’s a different shade,” Noah responded. “Trust me, I've been staring at them since he got here.” It was clear he didn’t mean to say what he had, but before he could take it back Brock interjected.

“Sounds like someone has a crush,” Brock sang, also leaning in.

“ _Shut up_ , Brock.”

“Which one of you is the telepath?” Haydn asked. Everyone in the room shifted towards Nolan, who was still in shock. “Nolan Patrick, identification number 103-98-19. Do you know who I am?”

“Of course he knows who you are Haydn.” Brock responded before Nolan could open his mouth. “What are those numbers? Why are you talking like that?”

“Brock Mcginn, 103-94-23.” Haydn turned his entire body towards Brock. “That’s who _he_ is. Patrick, do you know who _I_ am?” He pointed to his chest, his movements stiff.

“You’re that telepath, aren’t you?” Jeff asked, scowling. “Nolan, didn’t you say something about sensing someone yesterday?”

“Yeah, but-” Nolan began to speak, but Haydn cut him off.

“Very perceptive. Jeff Skinner, identification number 105-92-53, correct?”

“Yeah,” Jeff said cautiously. “What are those numbers?”

“I don’t have time to answer your questions, My- team? Mo, what would you call us?” Haydn’s iris’ faded to white as his body remained completely still. For a moment he remained there, motionless. “Great," he muttered as his eyes returned to the dazzling shade of blue. "My _team_ needs to meet with you.”

“Who were you just talking to? Who is Mo?” Noah asked forcefully.

“Noah Hanifin, 104-97-05. I told you, I don’t have time to answer your questions. Come meet with us and we’ll tell you whatever you want to know.”

“How do we know this isn’t a trap?” Brock asked, pushing himself off of the couch. “Skinny they could work for-”

“I guarantee you I don’t work for the government. Do you really think they’d have a mutant working for them? My friends and I-”

“The government?” Nolan questioned. “Are you saying that the people trying to kill us are-”

“Look, I’ve already said too much. Will you meet with us or not?” Every head in the room turned towards Jeff.

“Fine, but if we feel like something’s off, we’re gone.”

“Sounds fair. Where is your current location?” Haydn’s face remained expressionless as he spoke.

“Auburn. It’s just outside of Raleigh.” Noah answered.

“Mitch can you get us there?" Haydn asked, turning to the wall. "Perfect. If one of you can point it out on a map, we can meet you there.” Brock quickly looked to Jeff for verification before pulling out his phone and giving it to Haydn who quickly examined it.

“We’ll be there within the hour, pleasure doing business with you.”

The room was silent for a few seconds before anyone dared to speak. Everyone stayed perfectly still, staring at Haydn. His eyes faded back to normal and his face returned to the way it was before.

“What?” Haydn asked, whipping his head in both directions to make sure nothing was behind him. “Why is everyone looking at me like that?”

“He doesn’t remember,” Nolan said in awe, turning to Jeff. “The last memory he has is me asking if you heard that voice.”

“Of course that’s my last memory, it’s the last thing that happened.”

“Dude, we just had an entire conversation with you,” Brock said, sitting down beside him. “Well, with your body.”

“What do you mean-” Haydn started to ask, but he was cut off.

“Someone was in your head, talking through your mouth. He said that he was a mutant and that he and his team wanted to meet with us,” Jeff explained. “He said they’ll be here within the hour.”

“How the fuck did someone get _inside of me_?” Haydn asked frantically, inspecting his arms and legs for any sign of injury.

“Fuck if I know,” Noah said, walking towards the door. “I’m going to go get everyone else, we need to come up with a game plan before they get here.” Noah disappeared behind the door and appeared a few minutes later followed by a group of people.

“What’s so important that we all have to be down here? You know I have shit to do today-”

“Someone found us, Brett.” Jeff cut him off. A hush fell over the room as he continued to speak. “I don’t know how many of them there are and I don’t know what they want, but they’re coming and we need to prepare ourselves.”

“Who are they?” A small voice called out from the back of the group.

“The only thing we know is that one of them is a mutant who can  take over someone’s mind. He called himself William and he may or may not have a team of mutants who are all on their way here as we speak.”

“They’re trying to hurt us?” The voice asked again.

“We don’t know Seb,” Noah said, standing up and facing the group. “But if they are, we need to be ready to counter them. I say we attack first, we can’t be-”

“What if they’re friendly though?” Sebastian posed yet another question. “If we attack them, they may turn on us before they have a chance to explain themselves.”

“For once,” Brett said, pushing to the front of the group. “I agree with Hanny.”

“So do I,” Another voice echoed. “It’ll be a hell-of-a-lot easier to ask for forgiveness if they do turn out to be friendly.” Noah offered the two a small smile.

“Let’s put it to a vote,” Jeff said “All for attacking?” Out of the ten people in the room, all but one hand shot into the air.

“All against?” Sebastian put his hand up half-heartedly.

“It’s decided then, we attack.” Jeff nodded.

“From what I gathered, they’ve got some kind of teleportation device. From the directions Brock gave them, they should end up in the middle of this room.” Nolan said, moving to a place where everyone could clearly see him.

“We should move the furniture then,” Someone offered from the back. “It’ll be easier to fight with less stuff in the way.”

“Good idea, Teuvo,” Nolan said, turning to Jeff who offered a smile in return. After a few minutes of clearing everything out of the room, they all returned to the center to continue discussing their plan.

“Maybe we should-” Suddenly, there was a puff of blue smoke and five strangers were standing in the corner of the room. Everyone stood silent, not daring to make the first move.

“I’ll get the others, one second,” One of the strangers said, disappearing into another puff of smoke.

“Are you-” Another one of the strangers began to speak.

“Now,” Jeff said calmly under his breath. He closed his eyes for a split second and suddenly there were three of him, all running towards the group of strangers. Before any of them had a chance to react, all three of his fists met with someone’s face. Brock was quickly by Jeff’s side, his steel fists also connecting with someone’s body, which turned to stone as soon as he touched it. Brock stopped for a split second, confused. The stone man reacted quickly, throwing his fist towards him, but Brock caught it inches in front of his face.

Another puff of smoke appeared in the other corner of the room, along with five more strangers.

“Spread them out,” Jeff called back to his team. A few grunts were heard around the room as the fight continued. One of the strangers, a large, well built man, was seemingly being attacked by nothing. Suddenly, he was flying through the air and hitting the wall with a loud thud. Brett’s body came into view, growing from the size of a dime to his regular size.

“What the fuck is happening?” One of the strangers called as he struggled to fight off Noah’s attacks. Noah forced his hand onto the man’s forehead.

“SLEEP,” Noah yelled. The stranger dropped to the floor, fast asleep.

“Dylan? A large animal would be REALLY helpful right about now,” Another called out as he dodged Teuvo’s fist.

“Fine,” One of the strangers loudly huffed as his body changed from that of a person into a massive bear. He began to make his way through the room, tossing people into the walls with ease.

“I got him,” Haydn called, rushing towards the animal. Tree roots tore through the floorboards started to slowly wrap themselves around the bear’s body. The closer Haydn got, the faster they grew and they didn’t stop until everything but it’s head was covered.

“Nolan!” Sebastian called out from the middle of the room, where he was trying his best to combat one of the strangers.

“I really don’t want to hurt you, dude,” The stranger called, slapping away Sebastian’s hands. “But I will if I have to.” His eyes began to glow a hot red, like they were an stove someone had just turned on. Sebastian barely had time to react before a short burst of energy shot from the stranger’s eyes, clipping him on the arm. It burned like nothing he had ever experienced before, but he kept fighting.

“I _’m a little busy Seb,_ ” Nolan’s voice rang out in Sebastian’s mind.

“T _ell everyone to head towards the door_ ,” Sebastian thought back, still struggling to dodge the stranger’s advances.

“ _What are you going to do?_ ” Nolan questioned.

“ _Just trust me_ ,” Sebastian thought as he was hit by another force of heat, this time on his cheek. Looking around, he saw his friends one by one start backing up towards the door of the room. As soon as he made sure everyone was close enough, he raised his hands into the air and slammed them onto the ground. Jeff quickly lead his group out of the room and slammed the door as water immediately started to rush into the room through every available opening. Before any of the strangers had time to react, the room was completely full. Sebastian watched as, a few at a time, the strangers body’s went from struggling to limp, floating to the bottom of the room.

Slamming his hands on the ground again, the water rushed out of the room as quickly as it came. “You can come in now,” He called.

“My socks are fucking soaked,” Brett complained as he re-entered the room with the rest of the group.

“Nice thinking, Fishy,” Teuvo said, meeting him in the center of the room. Sebastian offered a weak smile before stumbling into Teuvo’s arms. 

“I forget how exhausting that is,” He said with a weak laugh. In the blink of an eye Teuvo disappeared and reappeared holding a chair.

“Rest,” he said simply, forcing Sebastian into the chair.

“You’re hurt.” Haydn said, crouching down to take a look at Sebastian’s arm.

“I’ll be fine, it’s just-” Before he could finish, Haydn gently placed his hand on his wound, causing him to wince in pain. Haydn’s eyes flickered shut.

“What did you just do?” Sebastian asked, moving his arm from under Haydn’s hand.

“Your arm… holy shit, Haydn.” Noah said, pushing through the others to get to Sebastian. “You didn’t tell us you could heal people, _that’s incredible_.”

“You never asked.” Haydn said, his face becoming increasingly red.

“We should probably tie them up before they come to.” Jeff said, pointing to the bodies scattered through the room. “Can you grab the rest of those chairs?” Everyone in the room quickly grabbed one of the chairs from outside and lined them against the wall, positioning each of the stranger’s limp bodies into them.

“Haydn can you-” Before Jeff could finish, thick vines were already creeping into the room and wrapping themselves around the strangers.

“Hey guys, wheres Nico?” Nolan asked, looking around the room.

“I’m right here,” a voice called.

“Can’t see you, dude.”

“Oh,” Nico’s voice was heard again as his body appeared beside Nolan. “Sorry.”

“Charlie, come look at this guy,” Noah said, approaching the man that was once a bear. He was still covered from chin to toe in tree roots.

“I can’t believe this twink can turn into a bear,” Charlie said, examining the stranger’s face.

“Did you just call him a twink? No way man,” Haydn said with a smile, joining the two boys. “He’s a twunk _at least_.”

“Is now the best time to be debating this?” Brock asked, rolling his eyes. “Skinny, what are we going to do once they wake up?”

“Find out what they want,”

* * *

“Ready, Hanny?” Jeff asked, looking towards Noah. He had his hands on the foreheads of two of the strangers. Noah nodded. “Alright then, wake ‘em up.”

“Awake,” Noah shouted. The two stranger’s eyes shot open and they immediately began to struggle in their chairs. Haydn shot up from where he was sitting and the vines began to tighten.

“The more you struggle the tighter they’ll get,” Haydn said confidently, approaching the two. “Just calm down.”

“ _Calm down?”_ the bear man spat. “You just _fucking_ attacked us for no _fucking_ reason and you’re telling me to calm-” The tree roots began to creep up his neck as his face rapidly twitched from a normal face to a blur of flesh tones.

“What the fuck is he doing?” Noah asked, looking to Nolan for the answer.

“He’s trying to morph into a bird,” Nolan said with a smile. “Apparently he can do more than just one animal.”

“Dylan,” The other stranger said. “Stop struggling, we obviously aren’t going anywhere.” He is dazzling blue eyes scanned the room, looking each and every person up and down before moving on to the next. His eyes suddenly faded from blue to white and the vines began to slowly creep away, as did the roots.

“Put him to sleep!” Nolan called to Noah. He quickly reached out and put his hand back onto his forehead.

“Sleep.” The stranger’s eyes returned to blue as his head slammed back.

“That’s the other telepath,” Nolan said with a sigh. “Haydn, are you alright?”

“Didn’t you already ask me that?” Haydn asked. “Shit. Did he-”

“Yeah, only for a second though,”

“Why is it always me?”

“Because you control the vines,” Dylan said, the roots now only covering up to his elbows. “Obviously.”

“Which one of these people is your leader?” Jeff asked, approaching the other strangers.

“The guy on the very left,” Dylan used his head to gesture.

“He’s lying,” Nolan pointed out quickly. “It’s this guy. Morgan.” Noah moved to Morgan and with a quick word he awoke. He only struggled for a second before he spoke.

“Why did you attack us? Willy told you this wasn’t a trap.” Morgan asked, looking down the line at the rest of his group.

“Wouldn’t you have said that either way?” Nico asked from the back of the room.

“Fair. You could have just trusted us, though. We’re mutants just like you are, we don’t want to hurt you.”

“We didn’t know that,” Jeff said, shaking his head. “The only thing your telepath said was that _he_ was a mutant. We couldn’t take a chance.”

“I understand,” Morgan said, nodding. “If you can get these things off of me, I’d be more than happy to explain everything.”

“ _Seriously?_ ” Dylan shouted. “You’re cool with them attacking us for no-” Before he could finish speaking the vines covered his mouth.

“Does that guy ever shut up?” Haydn asked with a smile. Morgan shook his head, trying his best to keep from laughing.

“So, are you going to let me go?” Morgan asked, his eyes meeting Haydn’s.

“Jeff, what do you think?”

“Go ahead, Haydn.” The vines slowly faded away and Morgan got up, stretching out his legs before walking to Jeff and extending his hand.

“My name’s Morgan, identification number 105-94-44.”

“Why do you guys keep saying that? Identification number for what?” Brock asked, not bothering to get up from where he was sitting.

“I guess I have a lot to explain,” Morgan said. “Let me start at the beginning.”

* * *

It took nearly two hours to Morgan to tell the group everything they needed to know. Halfway through the process they had to wake up Mitch so he could blink back to Base to grab all of the files.

“This is going to be a lot harder than we thought,” Nolan said, turning to Nico.

“We don’t have a choice though,” he answered. “We can’t just let the government keep murdering us.”

“I agree, but how the fuck are we going to stop them?” Brett asked.

“Maybe we don’t have to stop them,” Teuvo suggested. “Maybe, if we just expose what they’re doing, the reaction from the public will be enough to stop them.” A hush fell over the room.

“That could work, actually,” Jeff said, placing his hand on Teuvo’s shoulder. “What they’re doing is clearly a crime,”

“It’s genocide,” Noah cut in.

“Exactly! Once people know what they’re doing there’s no way they’ll be able to continue without people jumping at their necks.”

“Now, the question is how are we going to expose them?” Mitch asked, nervously bouncing his leg. A hush fell over the room.

“Well, until we figure it out, let’s get everyone to Base.” Morgan said, breaking the silence. “We’ll need somewhere to train.”

“Base?” Brett questioned. “What the hell is that?”

“It’s what we operate out of.” Morgan answered with a smile. “It’s big enough for all of us to stay there.”

“Yeah, no offense,” Dylan started, looking around the room. “But this place is a dump.”

“Excuse me-” Noah began, but was cut off by Morgan, who was tightly gripping Dylan’s shoulder.

“What Dylan _meant_ to say,” He said, glaring at him. “Is that this place wouldn’t be able to hold all of us.”

“Why do we need to be together?” Sebastian asked quietly. “We’ve been doing fine by ourselves.”

“We’re stronger as a group. If one of us gets attacked it’ll be easier to react if we’re all in one place.” Morgan answered. “That and I think it’ll be good for us to train as a group. We can help each other.”

“I agree with him,” Jeff said, placing his hand on Sebastian’s shoulder. “If we’re going to do this together, we need to start trusting each other.” He turned to the rest of his group. “What do you say, guys? All in favor of moving to…”  
  
“Base.” Mitch finished his sentence.

“Yeah, Base.” Jeff echoed. Several hands slowly made their way into the air. “That’s a majority. Everyone go grab their things.”

“The _necessary_ things.” Mitch called as the guys started to exit the room. “I’m not carrying all of your shit.”

“Noah, before you go can you wake up the rest of his group?”

“Sure.” Noah made his way over to the group, all of whom were still fast asleep. One by one he woke them up as Morgan filled them in on what was happening.

“You’re letting them come with us?” Connor asked as he struggled against the vines. “Mo, they attacked us. How can we trust them?”

“That’s exactly what they said about us. Willy scared them, so they attacked.”

“I didn’t do anything to scare them.” William said, his eyes fading to white.

“What are you-” Morgan started to question him, but stopped as he saw the vines begin to creep back through the windows. “We could have just asked him.”

“This was quicker.” William said with a smile. Morgan looked like he was about give William a lecture, but instead he turned his concentration to Mitch.

“Mitch, can you go ahead and take them back to Base? You guys go make sure that everything is ready for them to move in.” Mitch nodded his head and got in the middle of the first group.

"Why do we-”

“Dylan. Don’t argue man, you’re not going to change his mind.” Travis said quietly.

“Let’s go, dude.” Mitch said with a laugh, grabbing Dylan by the collar and pulling him into the group. “Everyone ready?”

“Wait give me a-” Dylan started to speak but before he could finish he and the group were gone, leaving behind a puff of blue smoke. Within a few seconds Mitch returned in the same place he had left. He quietly gathered the rest of the guys and disappeared again, leaving only Morgan in the room. For a minute or so he stood there alone until Mitch returned again.

“I’m going to sleep for a full twenty-four hours after this,” Mitch said, gasping for breath.

“I won’t stop you,” Morgan smiled. “Let’s just hope this isn’t for nothing.”

“I think we’re all ready to go,” Jeff said, leading his group back into the room, all of them with bags in tow.

“Let’s go then,” Morgan said, moving to Mitch’s side. “We’ve got a busy night ahead of us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A fight scene! Hopefully it flowed alright, I'm definitely going to work on describing everyone's powers. I'm super surprised and grateful for all of the support this fic has gotten so far, thank you all so much for reading! Next chapter we'll all be a big happy family (and will probably have a lot of domestic stuff in it, oops). As always if you have a suggestion or anything my tumblr is @haydnflury!


	3. LIFE

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Banter, training, and romance. Three months after the two teams join forces this is a look at how they're getting along.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> back at it a week later! i know this is super soon, but i was so excited to write a bit of their domestic life that i got carried away and here we are, 5000 words later. 
> 
> check the note at the end of the chapter to learn more about the CAROLINA HURRICANES FIC EXCHANGE that I'm putting on this year! i'd love to have you participate!

“I swear to god dude, if you don’t stop talking I’m going to throw you out of the fucking window,” Dylan complained, burying his head under his pillow. “ _Why are you still in here_ _anyways?_ ”

“We’re not even talking that loudly,” Mitch said in a mockingly loud whisper. “Right Davo?” Connor looked over lazily, his eyes barely open.

“I’m going to be one hundred percent honest with you Mitchy, I’ve been asleep for the past,” Connor leaned over to check the time on his phone “Three hours.” Mitch tossed his pillow towards Connor’s head.

“What? I’ve been talking to you!” He said, trying his best to sound offended. This wasn’t the first time Connor had fallen asleep during a chat with Mitch, and it definitely wasn’t going to be the last.

“You were talking _at_ him. Big difference.” Dylan stuck his head out from under his pillow just long enough to speak.

“Do you go to sleep this late _everyday_?” Connor asked, rubbing his eyes. “It’s not normal. You need to sleep, man.”

“It’s only five,” Mitch said with a shrug. “The sun’s not up for another two hours.”

“You’re supposed to get up with the sun, not go to sleep as it comes up.” Dylan groaned.

“Yeah sure. That means a lot coming from a raccoon,” Mitch mocked. “You would sleep through the day if you had the chance.”

“Shut up and go to bed.”

“Make me.” Mitch jumped off of Connor’s bed and quietly walked through the hall. He could hear snoring coming from the other bedrooms, meaning the rest of his housemates were fast asleep. It has been three months since the others moved into Base and honestly, it’d been a struggle. Sharing a house with eighteen other people wasn’t ideal; sharing a house with eighteen other _men_ was a nightmare. Mitch couldn’t remember the last time he saw the floors in the majority of the house, _hell_ he couldn’t even tell you what they were made of.

He made his way down the stairs and outside, where he sat quietly on the deck. Base was planted neatly in the middle of a dense forest, surrounded by a small lake and plenty of wildlife. It was dark, but Mitch didn’t mind. He closed his eyes, letting his mind wander wherever it wanted.

“Mitch? You good?” Haydn’s voice rang out from the doorway. Mitch whipped his head around with a smile.

“Yeah! I just wanted to get some fresh air. What are you doing up?”

“I couldn’t sleep,” Haydn said, rubbing his neck.

“Why not?” Mitch asked, scooting over on the bench so Haydn could sit.

“I just,” Haydn took a shallow breath. “Promise me you won't tell anyone."

"Tell them what?"

"What I'm about to tell you. Mitch, you have to swear to me you won't tell anyone else." Haydn's tone was grim, like he was holding in something dark.

"I won't tell anyone." Mitch promised. Haydn gave him a small smile and took a deep breath.

"Every time I close my eyes all I can see is people getting hurt." Haydn started, tears already beginning to form in his eyes. "It’s been happening for a while, long before I came here. I used to think it was just random people, that it was just a dream. But now,” he stopped, his voice shaking. “It’s you guys. Auston, and Dylan, and Connor, and Morgan, and-" he stopped himself. "I’ve seen everyone in this house die.” Haydn brought his knees to his chest and let his head drop. “I don’t know what to do, Mitch. What if they’re not dreams? What if everyone is going to-”

“Haydn, stop.” Mitch said, putting his arm around Haydn’s shoulder. “Everything’s going to be fine; no one is going to die. They’re just dreams, dude. I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation for them, nothing to worry about.” Haydn lifted his head enough to rest it on Mitch’s shoulder.

"What if they're not though? What if everyone is going to die and there's nothing I can do to stop it?" 

"We're not going to let that happen. Haydn, listen to me. Nothing bad is going to happen to us, alright? Mo and Gards and Jeff are going to make sure we're protected." He smiled. "And besides, there are nineteen of us and we're all mutants. Whoever wants to attack us can do their worst, we're always going to win."

“Yeah. I’m sure I’m just over reacting,” Haydn said, closing his eyes. “Thanks, man.”

“No problem,” Mitch said, keeping his smile. “And look, now that you-” The sound of the door opening stopped his thought.

“Oh, sorry.” Auston said, his eyes wide as he stared at Haydn’s head on Mitch’s shoulder. “I’ll come back later.”

“I was just about to go,” Haydn said, pushing himself off of the bench. “I’ll see you later, Mitch.”

“Alright, man. Try and get some sleep, okay?” Haydn giggled as he slipped past Auston and back into the house. “What’s up, Aus?”

“I umm,” Auston’s eyes were still wide, as if he had just seen a ghost. “I actually forgot something, I uh, I have to go.”

“Okay, I’ll see you-” Before Mitch could finish his sentence, Auston had retreated back into the house.

* * *

 

Walk ten minutes north of Base and you’d run directly into the Barn. From the outside, it looked like exactly that: an old barn. Inside though, it was a high-tech bunker designed specifically for the team to hone their skills. Underground, there were five levels of airtight, fireproof, soundproof rooms, all of which were designed by Freddie to be safe for the others to practice in.

Auston had been on the third level, the fire zone, for the past area. He couldn’t stand to be in the house, at least not for a while. _Why were they up so early? What were they doing together? Why the absolute fuck was the plant guy’s head on Mitch’s shoulder and why was Mitch’s arm around him?_ Auston and Mitch had been flirting back and forth ever since he had gotten to the house, but especially since the other team moved in. At least, that’s what Auston thought was going on. Maybe Mitch was just being friendly; maybe he wasn’t interested in him at all.Thinking about it made him mad, which made his eyes glow like a fire. He turned his music up and focused on the targets in front of him. His eyes glowed as a stream of energy burst straight to the targets, setting them on fire as soon as they made contact. Turning to the next set of targets, he focused the energy to the center of his body. A circle of energy began to form around him, the more he focused the more intense the energy became. He whipped himself towards the targets and the circle of energy left his body. As it made contact with them it exploded, leaving a mess of ash where the targets once stood. He bent down to the control panel by his feet and set it to hand to hand combat. Three chimes came through the room’s loudspeakers as one by one holograms of masked men appeared in the corners of the room. The first man took a running start at Auston, who in return charged at him. The masked man threw the first punch, which Auston dodged with ease. He grabbed the man’s collar and slammed him to the ground; he disappeared on impact. The next man came from behind, putting Auston in a choke hold. After a second of struggling, Auston reached over his head to grab the man’s neck, pulling him over his shoulder and driving him into the ground, again, the man disappeared on impact. Auston fought like this for what seemed like hours. One at a time hooded men ran to try and attack him but he would always find a way to pin them to the ground.

“Blowing off steam?” A voice rang out as Auston struggled with one of the masked holograms. The man faded away, as did the rest of the holograms that were lining the room.

“What do you want, Noah?” Auston asked, grabbing his phone from the ground. “Can’t you see I’m busy?”

“What were you doing with Haydn this morning?” Noah asked, taking a step few steps closer.

“What the _fuck_ are you talking about? I wasn’t doing anything with him.” Auston tried to push past him to the door, but Noah wouldn’t budge.

“Drop the act, Matthews. I saw you two coming inside, _what were you doing_?” Noah asked again.

“ _I told you_ , I wasn’t doing anything. I went outside because I saw Mitch, but when I got out there,” Auston could feel his eyes turning red. “I saw the two of them out there together. They were all over each other, so I left.”

“ _What_?” Noah asked, his hands balling into fists. “What were they doing?”

“Look, I don’t know, Haydn bolted as soon as I got out there.”

“Did they kiss? Did Haydn say anything to him before he left? Did it seem like they’re, you know,” Noah paused, his expression turning from angry to concerned. “Together?”

“All saw was then snuggling on the bench,” Auston said quietly. He had been asking himself the same questions all afternoon. “Why do you care?”

“I don’t.” Noah stated quickly. “I’m just trying to look out for my friend."

“ _Bullshit._ ” Auston sneered. “I’m going to level with you, and I swear to god if you tell anyone about anything I’m about to say I’ll-”

“Don't threaten me, dude.”

“Fine,” Auston took a deep breath. “To make a long story short, I thought Mitch and I had a thing going. Like, we’ve been kinda flirting back and forth for a while, but when I saw them this morning I thought that maybe he wasn’t flirting, or at least he didn’t mean it like that.” Auston stopped himself before he started to ramble. “Look, I would like to think that there was something between us. I’ll find out what actually happened, but in the meantime, can you try and keep Haydn away from Mitch?”

“Happily.”

* * *

“Okay, okay, okay,” Nico spat out through a fit of laughter. “Your turn, Nolan.”

“I have a perfect one,” Dylan said, stretching out his legs while he sat on the floor of Nico and Nolan’s room. “Did you guys hear about Mitch and Haydn?”

“No,” Nico and Nolan said together.

“I heard Noah and Auston talking in the Barn, and they made it sound like Mitch and Haydn are totally hooking up.”

“No way,” Nico said, snickering. “Mitch and the plant guy? I thought Mitch and Auston were a thing.”

“Yeah, aren’t they already fucking?” Nolan asked, elbowing Nico in the side.

“No, that’s you two.” Dylan smirked. Nolan’s face immediately turned bright red.

“How do you-” Nico started “I mean, we’re not. We’re totally not.”

“Guys, I can have bat ears, I hear everything,” Dylan laughed. “Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.”

“Anyways,” Nico said, eager to change the subject. “What was your idea?”

“I was just suggesting that we see what’s really going on,” Dylan smirked. “Spice things up, you know?”

“I'm down,” Nolan said, grabbing his phone.

“Wait, no. Why don’t we go talk to him in person?” Nico said, pushing himself up.

“Alright,” Nolan smiled. “Mitch is in the shower, Haydn is in the woods. Pick your poison.”

“Mitch,” Dylan decided quickly.

“Let’s go have some fun.”

* * *

“Mitch?” Haydn’s voice rang out through the bathroom. “Do you mind if I come in?”

“Uh, yeah, go ahead.” Mitch had been in the shower for less than a minute before Haydn showed up.

“About this morning,” Haydn started. “I just wanted to say that-”

“You don’t have to say anything, ” Mitch interrupted. “I know it must have been tough for you to put yourself out there like that, but I’m glad you did.”

“I’m glad I did, too,” Haydn said. “Did you, uh, get something out of it?”

“I mean you definitely gave me something to think about,” Mitch laughed.

“So you enjoyed it?"

“Enjoy- what are you talking about?”

“You know,” Haydn was almost whispering.

“I really don’t,” Mitch said, shuffling behind the curtain of the shower.

“ _The sex_ , did you enjoy it?” Haydn asked again, his voice shaking as if he was holding in laughter.

“What the fuck are you talking about, dude?” Mitch asked, pulling the curtain back just enough to peak his head out. Instead of seeing Haydn he saw Nolan, Nico, and Dylan standing in the doorway. “Did you just-"

“Bye,” Nolan said, cutting him off and pushing his way out of the door.

“Yeah, I think we’re done, Dylan.” Nico said, leaving the room.

“What just happened?” Mitch asked, turning the water off and grabbing a towel.

“Nothing,” Dylan said with a smile as he turned to leave.

“Dylan, seriously.”

“We were just trying to find out what happened between you and the plant guy.”

“What do you mean?” Mitch wrapped the towel around his waist and stepped out of the shower.

“I overheard Auston talking to Noah, and according to them you and Haydn hooked up.”

“Auston said that?” Mitch asked, his expression dropping.

“Yeah,” Dylan said slowly. “Is everything okay?”

“Yea- No. I have to go.” Mitch barely finished his sentence before he disappeared into a blue puff of smoke.

* * *

“That’s an hour,” Teuvo called as his phone buzzed. He was sitting by the lake with a book in his hand, waiting for Sebastian.

“You sure?” Sebastian called, his head popping out from under the water.

“Yep. I set a timer and everything.”

“I can go for longer,” Sebastian said, swimming to the edge where Teuvo was sitting.

“I know you can, _rakkaani_. I’ve seen you sleep at the bottom of a swimming pool before," he laughed. "Why are you even doing this? Didn’t Jeff say we were supposed to be training?”

“I am training, _kultaseni_. What are you doing?”

“I’m observing,” Teuvo said with a smile.

“Why don’t you come _observe_ in the water?” Sebastian asked, pushing himself backwards, back into the lake.

“You know I can’t swim.” Teuvo said, putting his book down. “Anyways, I’m fully clothed.”

“No, I know you _don’t_ swim,” Sebastian corrected him. “And I think I can help with the clothing.” He swam back to the shore and took a seat beside him. “Besides, you don’t have to swim,” he continued as climbing onto of Teuvo, placing each of his legs on either side of his body. “You can just hang on to me, and we’ll float.” Sebastian ran his hands down Teuvo’s chest before pulling his shirt off.

“That doesn’t sound very safe,” Teuvo said with a smirk, placing his arms around Sebastian’s waist and pulling him closer.

“That’s never bothered you before,” Sebastian said, brushing his lips against Teuvo’s. He closed his eyes, waiting for Sebastian's kiss.

“You’ll have to come in the water,” Sebastian called, already back in the lake. 

“ _Vittu_ ,” Teuvo cursed, pushing himself off of the ground. “If I drown it’s your fault.” He slowly made his way into the lake, eventually meeting Sebastian in the middle. He immediately tossed his arms around his neck, getting as close as he could. Sebastian laughed, his nose meeting Teuvo’s.

“ _Minä rakastan sinua_ ,” Sebastian whispered, his lips meeting Teuvo’s as he spoke. “You know?”

“I know,” Teuvo whispered back, only parting their lips for a second. “ _minäkin rakastan sinua.”_

* * *

“I’m not fucking Haydn.” Mitch exclaimed as he appeared in a puff of blue smoke.

“No one said you were, dude,” Brock said, raising an eyebrow as he placed two weights he was holding back on the rack.

“That sure is a way to enter a room,” Travis laughed. Mitch looked around, obviously confused. “ _Fuck_. I was trying to go to Auston’s room. Sorry guys.” With another cloud of smoke, he disappeared.

“I wonder what that was about.” Freddie said, hopping onto a treadmill.

“He’s under the impression that Auston thinks he and Haydn are fucking.” William said simply. “Dylan told him.”

“That sounds like the type of bullshit Dylan would make up.” Travis said, rolling his eyes.

“Why Haydn though?” Brock asked, walking over to the bench. “Spot me?”

“Sure,” Travis said, making his way to the bench as well. “I don’t know, I know they’ve been talking a lot recently, but it didn’t look like they were making that kind of connection.”

“Doesn’t Haydn have a thing for the empath?” William asked, rolling out a yoga mat.

“Yeah, Noah.” Brock said as Travis guided the weight down. “Noah has been flirting at him since we picked him up and he seemed pretty into it.”

“Mitch has been talking to Auston for a while, too.” Travis added.

“Why would Dylan make something like that up though?” Brock asked through deep breath.

“I have no idea,” Travis said. “He’s a dick, but he’s not _that much_ of a dick.”

“I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens.” Freddie said, shrugging.

“Guess so.” Travis echoed.

“Sooner rather than later hopefully."

* * *

“So, you’re pretty good friends with Haydn, right?” Noah asked, grabbing Charlie’s wrist as his fist gilded towards his face.

“I mean, yeah,” Charlie answered simply, his wrist phasing out of Noah’s grasp. “Why?” He asked, his body melting to the ground to form a puddle of silver liquid.

“Has he been spending a lot of time with Mitch lately?” Noah danced around the puddle, trying his best not to step on what was once Charlie’s body. As he turned around, Charlie's body reformed behind him and pushed him to the ground. Noah rolled to his back just as Charlie fell on top of him.

“Check mate.” He smirked, patting Noah on the shoulder. “I guess so, yeah. They’ve been talking a lot lately, but it just seems like they’re friends, you know?” Charlie pushed himself off of Noah and offered him a hand.

“Does it look like there’s something _more_ going on?” Noah asked, grabbing his hand. Charlie pulled him from the ground and hit him on the shoulder.

“I don’t know. I thought you two were hitting it off, why don’t you just ask him what’s going on?”

“Are you kidding? If I ask him, he’ll know that I’m into him.” Noah scoffed.

“So? You _are_ into him, _aren’t you_?” Charlie asked, grabbing a towel and wiping the sweat from his face.

“Of course I am, but I don’t want him to know that. What if he doesn’t feel the same way?”

“There’s only one way to find out.” Charlie said, going to the door. "It sounds like you guys need to talk."

* * *

"I’m on my way back,” Jeff said, checking the time on his watch. “Probably another five minutes.”

“Perfect,” Morgan said, placing the final plate onto the table. “I’m going to be honest, I never thought we’d be able to fit nineteen people at this table.”

“Neither did I,” Jake echoed with a laugh. “Willy, do you mind calling everyone?”

“On it,” William said, closing his eyes. “ _Time to eat, get your asses to the dining room_.” His voice boomed through every square inch of Base, yet his mouth never moved.

“I’m here.” Jeff said with a smile, heading to the door. He opened it to reveal three exact copies of himself, each with their hands full of bags from various restaurants.

“Thanks, Jeff!” They said in unison, sliding their shoes off at the door and making their way into the dining room.

“I’m never going to get used to that,” Dylan frowned as his body changed from a bird to his normal form.

“A falcon,” Brett said, taking a seat beside him. “That’s new.”

“It was an Amer-”

“An American kestrel,” Freddie finished his sentence. “The smallest and most common falcon in North America, commonly found in Mississauga, Ontario.”

“Uh, yeah. What Freddie said,” Dylan scowled.

“Thanks for getting the food, Jeffs,” Travis said, talking a seat across from Dylan and Brett.

“No problem,” All four Jeffs said happily in unison. “Oh, let’s just,” Three of them quickly walked to the fourth, disappearing as soon as they touched him. “There we go.”

“It smells gross in here,” Nico said as he entered the room. “Who ordered fish?”

“I got sushi, sorry dude,” Nolan apologized, grabbing one of the many bags from the end of the table before taking a seat next to Travis.

“Guess you’re sleeping in the hall tonight,” Nico said, scrunching his nose.

“Fuck off.” Nolan smiled, bumping him on the shoulder as he took a seat beside him.

“How can you guys pay for all of this?” Teuvo asked, grabbing two boxes from the pile and handing one to Sebastian, who had his head resting on his shoulder.

“Gard’s parents are _loaded_.” William answered, taking a seat at the head of the table. “I’m talking Jeff Bezos levels of money.”

“Who?” Noah asked, entering the room with Charlie and taking a seat on the other side of Brett.

“The CEO of Amazon,” Freddie answered quickly. “Net worth of over 139 trillion dollars.”

“ _Seriously?_ ” Mitch asked, sliding into the seat across from Noah.

“Gards how have you never mentioned that?” Connor asked, matching Mitch’s curious tone.

“I guess it just never really came up,” Jake said, his face turning bright pink.

“He’s too modest to bring it up,” Morgan corrected, lightly punching him on the arm.

“Sorry we’re late,” Brock said as he and Auston made their way into the room. “We were in the Barn.”

“How long have you guys been in there?” Haydn asked, grabbing the last bag from the center of the table and taking the only empty seat, next to Noah.

“I was only there for an hour or two,” Brock answered. “Auston, you were there basically all day, weren’t you?” Auston nodded, glaring at Haydn as he took a seat.

“That explains why I couldn’t find you,” Mitch said under his breath.

“Speaking of,”  Dylan said loudly. “Mitch, what were you saying earlier about you and Haydn fucking?” Auston slammed his fist onto the table and shot up from his seat.

“I’m sorry, _what_?” Haydn choked.

“Auston, wait. It’s not-” Mitch pleaded, trying grab him as he stormed out of the room. “Seriously Stromer?”

“It’s just a question,” Dylan said with a smirk.

“Wait, you guys are actually-” Noah asked turning to Haydn, his expression melting into concern.

“No! _god no_ ,” Mitch answered quickly. “No offense, Haydn. You're _so_ not my type.”

“Dylan why would you even think that we were-” Haydn could barely string a sentence together.

“Where did you hear that?” Mitch finished his thought.

“I overheard Noah and Auston talking in the Barn about you two hooking up.” Dylan answered, shrugging as he shoved food into his mouth.

“No one said anything about them actually doing anything,” Noah stated defensively. “I was just asking Auston what he was doing outside with you this morning,” he turned to Haydn as he spoke. “He said something about you being out there with Mitch and that you two looked like you were having a moment.”

“Having a moment?” Haydn repeated. “If by that you mean I was having a mental breakdown and Mitch was trying to calm me down, then yeah sure, we were _totally_ having a moment.”

“So you guys weren’t-”

“No. Noah why would you even think that I would-”

“Someone’s coming.” Nolan interrupted. “Three people, one hundred feet and closing quickly.”

“Gards-” Morgan turned to Jake, who was already heading to the door.

“Everyone quiet. I’ll handle this.” He said, turning off the lights in the dining room as he made his way to the door. A series of heavy knocks came from the other side; he let them finish before opening it. Three men stood there, all covered in blood and supporting the one in the middle who looked like he was on the edge of consciousness.

“Пожалуйста” The one on the left said frantically, his accent thick. “он умрет-”

“They’re mutants, Gards,” Nolan called, flicking the lights back on. Jake nodded as he guided the three into the dining room. “Clear the table.”

“What happened?” Morgan asked, meeting the men and helping them lift the injured one onto the table.

“He-” The same man frantically spoke. “он был подстрелен. У нас не было возможности отбиться. Они вышли из ниоткуда.”

“He was shot.” William began to translate. “He didn’t have a chance to fight back. They came out of nowhere.” Haydn made his way to the group as William spoke. He placed his hand on the injured man’s chest, where the bullet hole was clearly visible.

“What is he doing?” The other man asked, grabbing Haydn’s arm. “Don’t touch him,”

“Get your fucking hands off of him,” Noah shot up and quickly went to Haydn’s side. “He’s healing him.”

“Noah, can you do something to calm them down?” Morgan asked. Noah nodded and placed either hand on the stranger’s foreheads. They tried to push him away, but he worked quickly.

“ _Calm down_.” He said gently. The two immediately stopped struggling.

“Who attacked you?” Morgan turned back to the strangers after giving Noah a smile in thanks.

“The men,” One said with a thick Russian accent. “We don’t know who they are.”

“We know _exactly_ who they are,” The other said. His accent wasn’t as thick, but he definitely had one and it _definitely_ wasn’t North American. “The same men who’ve attacked us the last fifty times. _Zasraný_ _zbabělci_.”

“Fucking cowards,” William translated. “Czech.”

“Where are you guys from?” Noah asked, still glaring at the man who had grabbed Haydn.

“Originally? I’m from St. Petersburgh, he’s from Barnaul.” The man with the Russian accent pointed to the man on the table.

“And I’m from Nové Město na Moravě,” The other said. “Czechia.”

“We were all living in Boone until they started attacking us,” The Russian said.

“North Carolina?” Charlie asked. “Nolan how did you now sense them?”

“I sense a lot of people,” Nolan said, scowling. “I reach out to everyone I can, it’s their job to respond.”

“We heard you,” The Czech man responded. “We weren’t interested in joining your armada.”

“Ебать.” The man on the table shot up, pushing Haydn to the wall. “Где мы?” He asked, turning to the other Russian. “Куда они делись?”

“He’s asking where he is and where the men went.”

“Stop,” the man said, grabbing William’s wrist. “The other bird, where is he?” He directed his attention to the others.

“The other what?” Morgan asked, looking at the group sitting at the other end of the table. “There’s no-” Before he could finish, the man on the table took his shirt off, revealing two massive wings on his back.

“Are those attached to you?” Dylan asked, reaching over the table to try and touch the man’s back.

“Why wouldn’t they be?” The man said, jumping off of the table. “You’re him?”

“No, I’m not a bird-”

“American kestrel,” Brett said with a toothy grin. Dylan frowned as his body transformed back into the bird.

“I thought he was lying when he told us he found another bird person.” The Czech man said.

“Why would I lie about that?”

“You’d lost a lot of blood-” The man began.

“So you what, _sensed_ him?” Noah asked.

“Basically.” He answered. “My name is Andrei, by the way.”

"Welcome to Base, Andrei."

* * *

Five hours later, everything had settled down. Andrei along with the two other men, Valentin and Martin, had been filled in on the group’s purpose and after much convincing, agreed to join. Everything was just beginning to quiet down again as the majority of the boys were on their way to sleep.

“Aus?” Mitch quietly knocked on his bedroom door. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

“Wouldn’t you rather talk to Haydn?” Auston asked, not bothering to turn his head from his phone.

“Please?” Mitch asked again.

“Go away, Mitch.”

“Auston, I-”

“ _Go away_.” Auston flipped the light on his nightstand, leaving Mitch standing in the dark. He closed his eyes and almost immediately felt light headed. He opened them only to find he was standing on the roof of the barn, with Mitch by his side. “Are you insane?”

“I really need to talk to you.” Mitch said. “This was the only place I could think of where you wouldn’t leave.”

“Mitch, I don’t care what you have to say. You and Haydn can do whatever the fuck you want to do. You don’t have to explain-” Before he could continue Mitch’s lips were pressed against his own, his hand gently sliding across his cheek and resting on the back of his neck. “No,” Auston whispered, pushing Mitch away. “Whatever game you’re playing, I don’t want to be a part of it. I’m done with whatever this is.”

“It’s not a game,” Mitch said, grabbing Auston’s hand. “Nothing is going on between me and Haydn. He’s my friend, that’s it.”

“I saw you two, whatever you were doing, it didn’t look friendly.”

“He was crying, Auston. I was just trying to help him.” Mitch took a step closer. “I swear to god, Aus, there’s nothing going on between us and there never will be.”

Auston sighed. “Promise?”

“Yeah." Mitch said gently, placing his hand back around Auston’s neck. "Can we _please_ just start over? Pretend like today never happened?”

“I’d like that,” Auston said, his lips brushing against Mitch’s. “Can we get off of this roof now?”

“Sure,” Mitch said, his lips connecting with Auston’s. With two puffs of blue smoke they were back in Auston’s room, their lips still connected.

“I’m glad you two made up and all,” Freddie said, looking up from his laptop. “But can you do that somewhere else?”

* * *

“Can we talk about earlier?” Noah asked, rolling over in his bed to face Haydn.

“What about it?” Haydn asked, turning on the light on.

“You and Mitch are-”

“Friends.” Haydn cut him off quickly. “Do we really need to talk about this?”

“I just wanted to make sure.” Noah said, pushing himself upright.

“Why do you care?”

“Auston was talking to me about what he saw and he seemed pretty shaken up. I think he and Mitch have this unspoken thing going on.”

“Kinda like us.” Haydn said with a smile. “Correct me if I’m wrong.” Noah stayed silent, his face cherry red. “That’s what I thought. By the way, I appreciate you sticking up for me today, even if it wasn’t needed.”

“No problem,” Noah smiled. “That’s what unspoken things do, right?”

"Right."

"We could make it a spoken thing," Noah smirked.

“Good night, Noah.” Haydn smiled back at him as he turned the light off.

"So you  _don't_ want to talk about it?"

"I'm going to sleep now."

"So later then?" Noah persisted.

"Later." Haydn agreed, closing his eyes.

"Good."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really hoped you enjoyed this little domestic soap-oprah! next chapter will be a bit more domestic stuff with a BUNCH of new people coming into the mix and possibly their plan of attack!
> 
> Now, about the exchange: @sidsknees (on tumblr) and I are putting on THE 2018 CAROLINA HURRICANES FIC EXCHANGE! To learn more visit out tumblr page @thecanesexchange (https://thecanesexchange.tumblr.com), we'd love to have you no matter your writing expierence


	4. TRAINING

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New mutants, group training, and a lunch gone wrong.

“Do you hear that?” Andrei asked, turning in his bed to face Martin. “Nečy?”

“I didn’t hear anything, Svech,” Martin groaned, not bothering to face him. “Go back to sleep.”

“You didn’t hear that voice?” Andrei asked again, this time turning on the light on his bedside table. “It was so loud, how did you not hear it?” 

“Maybe it was in your dream,” Martin assured him, resting his arm over his eyes.

“It definitely wasn’t a dream.” Andrei rolled out of bed and made his way to the window, peeking in between the blinds into the darkness. In the distance, he could make out several dark figures inching closer to Base. “There’s something outside.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean there’s something outside and it’s getting closer.” Andrei quickly turned, breaking into a sprint as he left his room and made his way down the hall. “Morgan?” He yelled, knocking loudly on Morgan and Jake’s door.

“It’s midnight, Svech,” Morgan said groggily, cracking his door just enough to stick his head out. “What do you-”

“There’s something coming,” Andrei cut him off. “I heard someone talking and when I looked outside I saw a bunch of figures coming out of the woods.”

“How many?” Morgan asked, slipping out of his room and into the hall.

“I couldn’t tell, maybe six or seven?” As Andrei spoke Morgan lead him down the hall and to Mitch’s room. He gently knocked on the door and almost instantly Mitch greeted them with a smile. 

“What’s up?”

“Is Trav up too?” Morgan asked quietly. “We need both of you.”

“He can be,” Mitch answered with a smirk, disappearing into the room for a split second and emerging with a yawning Travis. 

“Alright, let’s go,” Morgan said, leading the group down the stairs. 

“What are we doing?” Travis asked, wiping his eyes.

“Someone is coming,” Morgan said guiding them to the door. “If we need to fight I need you to go wake everyone else up,” he turned to Mitch as he spoke. “Travis, you and Andrei will stay with me and help fend them off until everyone else gets here. Got it?” Everyone nodded and took their positions out of sight of the door. After three knocks Morgan opened it to seven people.

“James?” He asked, squinting. 

“Hey, Mo,” A voice rang out from the darkness. “Have you met my brother?” 

“You have a brother?” Mo asked with a smile. “Why don’t you guys come in?” He motioned the group into the house and to the dining room where they all took a seat at the table.

“Are we good?” Travis asked, emerging from a dark corner of the hallway.

“Yeah, we’re good,” Morgan smiled. “Travis, this is James van Riemsdyk.”

“Looks like you’ve collected quite a few people too,” James said, waving Travis over to the table. 

“Nineteen total,” he nodded. “I’ll introduce everyone at breakfast. Mitch, do you mind going to the Barn and grabbing,” he quickly looked around the table, “nine more chairs?” Mitch nodded and disappeared in his usual puff of blue smoke.

“A teleporter?” One of the boys at the table said, looking impressed. “That’ll be useful.”

“That’s Trevor,” James said, eyeing Andrei as he took a seat at the table. “My brother.”

“Next to him is Jack and Brock,” James pointed to them as he spoke, each nodding as he said their name. “Then we have Nate, Matt, and Johnny.”

“I’m glad all of you decided to join us. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Morgan.”

“Who are you?” Jack asked as Mitch reappeared with the chairs. 

“That’s our resident birdman,” Mitch laughed. “He can fly and everything.”

“Birdman?” Brock asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Your voice,” Andrei said quietly, staring at Brock. “That is the voice I heard, Morgan.” 

“Weren’t you talking at those birds earlier?” Nate asked, turning to Brock.

“Yeah. He’s not an actual bird though, so how could he understand me?” 

“Maybe he’s more of a bird than you think,” Matt laughed.

“How about I show you where your rooms are?” Morgan asked, sensing how uncomfortable Andrei had become. “I’m sure you guys want to rest.”

“That'd be great,” Trevor said, pushing himself away from the table. “I’m dying for a shower.”

* * *

Seven hours later almost everyone had gathered back into the dining room just in time for Haydn to emerge from the kitchen. Thick vines followed him, carrying plates full of food and delicately placing them onto the table before retreating back into the lawn.

“So, what exactly do you do?” Jack asked Haydn as he took his seat at the table.

“Terrestrial Manipulation,” He answered simply. "I control plants."

“He’s a healer, too,” Andrei said loudly. “I was shot, but he healed me.”

“And you’re the bird guy, what about you?” Jack pointed to Martin, who was sitting next to Andrei. 

“Bad weather,” Valentin said under his breath, elbowing Martin in the side. “It’s pretty fitting, right?”

“You can control the weather?” Nate asked, shoving a heap of scrambled eggs into his mouth. “That’s really cool.”

“What about you?” Andrei asked, pointing at Jack.

“I have-”

“Jack?” Noah appeared in the doorway just as Jack began to speak. “What are you doing here?” 

“Noah Hanifin, holy shit. You were the last person I expected to see here,” Jack stood up to greet Noah as he made his way around the table, pulling him into a hug.

“What’s going on?” Noah asked again, now noticing the seven newcomers.

“We’ve got new recruits,” Dylan said. “Is it me or did this table get a hell of a lot smaller?”

“I was in Buffalo when they picked me up,” Jack said as Noah took his seat next to Haydn. “I figured going with them would be better than being alone, so here I am.” 

“That’s crazy,” Noah said with a smile

“Anyways,” Dylan interjected before Noah could continue. “What did you say your power was?”

“Telekinesis,” Jack answered. “What about you?” 

“Animals. You’ll see it sooner or later.”

“You want to be anymore cryptic?” Connor laughed. “Stromer can turn into like, any animal he wants to.”

“Uh, guys?” Jeff asked, entering the room and making his way to the original Jeff, who was quietly sitting at the table. “Did someone bring a dog?”

“You saw two of him, right?” Nate whispered, leaning into Johnny’s ear.

“You saw it too? Thank god.” 

“That’s Beckham,” Trevor answered. “Muzz’s eye-dog.”

“He’s harmless,” Matt said with a smile. “Trust me, he looks threatening but he’s actually a huge softy.”

“Huge is definitely a good way to describe him,” Jeff laughed. “For a second I thought he was a bear.”

“Why don’t you go make friends, Stromer?” Sebastian snickered quietly from the opposite end of the table.

“Why don’t you go back to the ocean where you belong?” Dylan shot back. 

“You’re from the ocean?” Johnny asked, putting his hand on Nate’s shoulder.

“He controls the ocean,” Teuvo answered for him. “Well, water in general.”

“Nate can turn into ice, maybe you can control him.”

“Only one way to find out,” Nate said as his arm transformed into ice. “Try and move my arm,”

“Not at the table, guys,” Jake yelled from the other end of the table. “We’ll have plenty of time for that later."

"Actually, why doesn’t everyone split up into their groups for training today? We can go ahead and switch up the groups to add the new guys.” Jeff suggested.

“That’s a great idea, Jeff,” Morgan agreed. “We’ll keep the speedsters together; Mitch, Davo, Turbo, and Andrei you guys can go-”

“We’ll be around,” Connor nodded.

“We’ll keep the nature guys together too. Haydn, Marty, and Stromer, take Brock and Muzz into the garden.” Morgan turned to Jake and thought for a second before continuing. “Element guys can go together, that’s Seb, Johnny, and Nate; you guys can head to the lake.”

“Nico, Nolan, and Z can head with me to the second floor of the Barn,” Jake said. 

“That’ll be fine. Matts, Trevor and James can come with me to the third floor,” Morgan continued. “Freddie, Brock, Travis, and Pesce can head to the fourth floor. Willy, Hanny, Charlie, and Jack can take the fifth floor. We’ll reconvene for dinner, which means you’re on your own for lunch. If you’re going into town you have half an hour, make sure you’re with at least one other person, no more than four at a time.”

“Be careful,” Jeff added.

“After lunch break up into pairs or single non-combat training,” Morgan instructed. “Willy, you have the keys to the third floor study, right?”

“Yep,” William replied. “Noah and Nolan, you’re with me after lunch.”

“I get to spend the entire day with you?” Noah asked sarcastically. “ _ Great _ .”

“And if something ever comes up,” Jake continued, ignoring Noah’s comment. “Remember there’s a Jeff located at the front of the Barn, on the back deck, and in between the lake and the woods.”

“Everyone good?” Morgan asked, looking around the table. “Good. See you all back here at seven-thirty.”

* * *

“This place is a lot bigger than it looks,” Jack said, looking around as they stepped off of the elevator and onto the fifth floor of the Barn. “So, what are we supposed to be doing?”

“Training,” Wiliam answered. “We usually start with individual practice, then we’ll go into a fight simulation.”

“Let’s see what you’ve got, Eich,” Noah said, lightly pushing Jack further into the room. “What environment are you feeling?”

“What- what?”

“Environment,” Charlie said, punching in a command onto the control panel on the wall. “Freddie programed every floor to simulate fifty different environmental conditions.”

“Uh, is there a regular option?” Jack asked, still looking very confused.

“Forest it is,” William decided for him. Charlie nodded, pressing the panel until the room flickered into a forest.

“ _ Holy shit _ ,” Jack whispered, taking a step away from the tree that had risen directly in front of him. “This is insane.” 

“Do your thing,  _ Eich _ ,” William said, taking a seat on the forest floor.

“Uh, alright,” Jack mumbled, rolling his shoulders back. He partially lifted his arms from his side and watched as several rocks levitated into the air. 

“That’s it?” William asked, laughing. “How about something a little bigger?” Jack rolled his eyes as he stuck his hand out towards William. The ground around him began to tremble and within seconds the spot where he was sitting was levitating. William dug his fingers into the group, bracing himself as he flew further into the air. “Nice one, smart ass. Now put me down.” Jack smirked as he pulled his hand down. William and the patch of grass he was sitting on slowly landed on the ground, exactly where it had been pulled up. 

“Good enough?”

“Noah, go.” William scowled.

“Alright,” Noah started. “How about we turn that frown upside down?” Noah knelt beside William, placing his hand on his shoulder. “You’re happy, in fact, you’ve never felt happier.” William’s scowl melted away as a smile ran across his face. He looked up at Noah, his smile growing wider as he spoke. “Better?” Noah removed his hand from William’s shoulder and his smile almost immediately faded.

“I hate it when you do that,” William said, pushing himself off of the ground. “Charlie?”

“Yep,” Charlie adjusted the control panel and the forest flickered away. Two hooded figures appeared on the opposite side of the room, each holding a handgun. Three chimes came over the loudspeaker and the two figures began to run towards Charlie, who seemed unphased. The figure on the left cocked his gun and fired it directly at his head, but instead of making contact, it flew directly through him. The figure fired again but Charlie’s body melted to the ground before the bullet reached him, turning into a silver liquid. The liquid rushed towards the figure on the right, reforming into Charlie’s body behind him. The figure turned to meet him, only for Charlie to grab the gun from it’s hands. With two shots, both of the figures flickered away as a single chime rang through the room.

“ _ Do you wish to continue?”  _ The voice of a woman echoed through the room.

“No.” Charlie answered. “You okay, Jack?”

“Yeah, sorry,” Jack answered, his face pale. “I just wasn’t expecting to watch your body melt like that.” 

“It’s a little weird, yeah.” Charlie laughed. “Pretty useful, though.”

“How about a little group combat?” William asked, moving to the control panel. “Four on eight seem fair?”

“You ready, Eich?” Noah asked with a smirk.

“I guess we’ll see.”

* * *

“This isn’t fair,” Johnny signed. “Two against one?”

“Find someone else who’s made of fire, then,” Nate laughed. For the past couple of hours he and Sebastian had been fighting him off, fire against water.

“Even if I did, Seb would just put them in a fucking bubble.”

“It works, doesn’t it?” Sebastian shrugged.

“Why don’t we try something that  _ isn’t _ about trying to drown me, then?” Johnny said with a fake smile. “I’m tired of getting wet.”

“Any ideas, Jeff?” Jeff had previously been moderating the fight.

“How about some tag?” He said with a smile as five other Jeffs walked out of his body. “One hit will get rid of them.” The original Jeff stepped to the side, making sure the others knew he was the real one. “Hit them, not me.”

“Are you sure this is safe?” Johnny asked, squinting.

“Yeah, I don’t know that killing five of you is a great idea.” Nate echoed.

“It’s not actually him,” Sebastian shrugged. “It’s not like he’ll feel it.”

“Seb’s right,” Jeff assured them. “As long as you’re getting them and not me, I won’t feel a thing.”

“Alright then,” Nate said, still sounding uneasy. “Let’s go, I guess.” He looked to Johnny and Sebastian, who both took a fighting stance. The Jeff’s made the first move, all five running towards the three. Sebastian made one fluid motion as the water in the lake moved to make a wall in the land, trapping two of the Jeff’s inside. Johnny met one of them, dodging his fist. His hand turned to flames, coming into contact with Jeff’s back. The last two Jeff’s Nate quickly handled, trapping them in a block of ice.

“That was quick,” Jeff said with a smile. “Good work, guys.”   
“I think you need stronger Jeffs,” Nate laughed. “Maybe ones that can take more than one hit.”

“They’re distractions,” Jeff said lightly. “Not meant for fighting.”

“Imagine if they were thought, you’d be  _ crazy  _ strong.”

“It’s probably for the best,” Jeff laughed. “Wouldn’t want to make myself a bigger target.”

* * *

“Everyone alright?” Auston asked, whipping his head around. Target practice was always nerve wracking for him, especially if there were other people in the room.

“Yeah, we’re good,” Morgan assured him. “Why don’t we move on to combat simulations?”

“Sounds good to me,” James said, pushing himself off of the ground.

“Maybe without the eyes?” Trevor suggested, putting a hand on Auston’s shoulder. “It’s a pretty small room and I like all my limbs where they are.”

“Hand to hand, works for me.” After a quick adjustment to the control panel, the back wall was filled with hooded figures. Three chimes from the loudspeaker, and the first four figures bolted towards the group, the first one meeting Morgan by the wall; his body immediately disappearing. The figure seemed to be fighting nothing, his body being tossed back and forth. Morgan’s body reappeared for a split second, punching the figure into the ground. Trevor and James had met their figures as well. They were fighting in perfect sync, even though their figures were attacking in different ways.

“On your left,” Trevor shouted, his left eye suddenly turning completely grey.

“Got it,” James said, turning just in time to grab the figure’s hand. He pushed the figure back, driving it into the wall.

“How many of these did you program, Mo?” Auston asked, trying his best to fend off a group of three figures that had surrounded him.

“Thirty,” Morgan shouted back, his body nowhere to be seen.

“We’re going to be here forever.”

* * *

“Let’s try it again,” Connor huffed. “I know it’ll work.”

“I don’t know how many more times I can do this,” Teuvo said, taking a few deep breaths.

“You’re not the one carrying people.” Andrei shook his head. “This is crazy.”

“Let’s just try it again.” Connor and Teuvo both assumed a runner’s starting position as Mitch appeared halfway between them and the barn. “Three, two, one-” The two ran towards the Barn, passing Mitch within seconds. Connor made it to the barn first, reaching it just as Mitch appeared. Mitch grabbed his hand and blinked away, reappearing in mid-air, halfway up the Barn. Connor tried to get his feet onto the wall and begin to run, but instead of moving up he began to fall. Teuvo reached the Barn a split second later and began to climb with ease. He passed Connor quickly, making his way onto the roof just as Andrei grabbed Connor and delivered him safely to the ground.

“I told you it wouldn’t work.” Mitch huffed. “You can’t run up a wall, Davo.”

“I can,” Connor insisted. “I have before, I just have to remember how I did it.”

“Well, until you do, can we just take a break?” Teuvo asked through shallow breaths. “If I have to climb that wall one more time I’m going to pass out.”

“Fine,” Connor said. “We’ll break for lunch.”

“Maybe by then you’ll acquire the power to climb walls.”

“Shut up, Mitch.”

* * *

“ _ Please _ don’t kill my dog,” Muzz said, putting his head in his hands.

“He’ll be fine,” Brock assured him. “Right, Haydn?” 

“As long as you stop distracting me,” Haydn answered, focusing on the tree in front of him. Beckham, Dylan, in the form of a raccoon, and several birds were walking across separate branches. Every time one of them would change directions, jump, or begin to fall it was Haydn’s job to make sure they had somewhere to land.

“You just lost two more birds,” Brock said, watching as they flew towards the woods. “You’re down to one.” 

“It’s not my fault they keep flying away,” Haydn complained. “Can’t you stop-”

“FLEURY,” Dylan yelled, falling off of his branch and tumbling towards the ground. Haydn quickly reached his hand out, moving another branch under him to stop the fall. “I think that’s enough,” Dylan said, shuffling down the tree’s trunk. Just as he hit the ground he transformed back into a person.

“Yeah,” Haydn agreed. Making a few delicate motions the tree’s branches created a crude staircase, safely leading Beckham to the ground. He happily made his way back to Matt and took a seat at his feet. “You’re hurt,” Haydn said as he examined Dylan’s neck which was covered in cuts and scrapes. Before Dylan could protest, Haydn gently laid his hands around his neck, leaving them there for a few seconds before pulling them away.

“Martin, what’ve you got?” Dylan asked, quickly turning away from Haydn.

“The most I can do right now is a slight breeze,” Martin shrugged. “I need to be in a high-pressure situation to do something more.”

“That’s usele-”

“That’s alright,” Matt cut off Dylan before he could finish. “I’m the same way. When I feel like I’m in danger, I can see through Beckham’s eyes.”

“It’s like you have a familiar,” Martin said. “Like a witch.”

“Yeah, kinda,” Matt laughed.

“Why don’t we break for lunch?” Haydn suggested, checking his watch. “We can meet back here in half an hour.” 

“You’re coming with me and Mitch, right?” Dylan asked, turning to Haydn. 

“Yeah,” he answered. “You think he’s done?”

“If not we’re going without him.”

* * *

“I’m  _ starving _ ,” Mitch said as he let go of Travis’ arm. They had appeared in an ally on the outskirt of town with Dylan and Haydn for lunch.

“What do you mean? You ate six hours ago,” Dylan rolled his eyes. The group made their way out of the ally and down the sidewalk, coming to a busy intersection. 

“Exactly,” Mitch whined. “With  _ my _ metabolism, six hours might as well be a year.”

“I feel like you’re over exaggerating,” Travis laughed as they crossed the intersection. “But either way, we’ll be there in ten minutes.”

“It would be so much easier if I could just blink us there,” Mitch huffed. “Walking is such a waste of time.”

“If someone saw you blinking in there, we’d be reported in seconds.” Haydn shook his head. “Anyways, it’s good to just slow down every once in a while.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Mitch said, brushing him off.

“Anyways, did you guys ever sort out your drama?” Dylan asked, eagar to change the subject.

“Yeah, Auston and I are good,” Mitch said with a smile. “If anything, the whole ‘fucking Haydn’ thing helped our relationship.”

“Glad I could help,” Haydn laughed, his face turning bright red. “Noah and I are back to passively flirting at each other, so I guess we’re good too.”

“You just need to make a move,” Travis shook his head. “You know  _ he’s _ not going to.” 

“He will when he’s ready,” Haydn argued. “I’m sure there is a reason he’s waiting.”

“Or maybe he’s just being a bitch,” Dylan shrugged.

“At least he’s flirting,” Haydn said defensively. “You and Connor act like total strangers.”

“What do you want me to do?” Dylan asked sarcastically. “Stick my tongue down his throat at the dinner table? Not my style.”

“You should have seen them before we came to Base,” Travis laughed. “You would have thought they hated each other.”

“Rather do that than be like Marns. Seriously, between you and Matthews and Nico and Nolan it’s a miracle I get any sleep.”

“ _ Dude _ , you listen to us?” Mitch scrunched his nose. “That’s fucking disgusting.”

“I have strong ears, man,” Dylan shook his head. “Maybe if you wouldn’t do it in the house-” Before he could finish his sentence, three large black vans rolled in front of them, blocking their path.

“Any chance that’s one of us?” Travis asked nervously. 

“Everyone stay calm,” Haydn whispered. “Turn around, let’s go find an empty building or something and we’ll just blink out.” The group turned around, only to be greeted by a dozen men wearing the same black tactical vest walking towards them.

“Got another plan, genius?” Dylan whispered aggressively.

“Cross the street,” Haydn said. The group turned again, and was again greeted by more men in the same tactical vests.

“Mitch, get us out of-” Haydn was cut off by the sound of several guns firing. Mitch fell to the ground, followed by Travis and Dylan. Haydn knelt to the ground, placing his hands on Dylan and Mitch, searching for where the bullet had hit them.

One more gun shot.

* * *

“Hey Martin? Have you heard from Haydn or Dylan since they left?” Matt asked, taking his seat at the table.

“No, should I have?” Martin shrugged. “They’re probably just in the woods somewhere.” 

“I didn’t see them,” Brock said, checking his watch. “I was supposed to meet up with Dylan after lunch, but he never showed.”

“Mitch too,” Auston interjected. “We were supposed to meet to, uh, practice.”

“Travis was going to meet me and Brett in the gym, he was a no show, too.” Brock added.

“Didn’t they go into town for lunch?” Freddie asked.

“Knowing Mitch, they probably just got side tracked.” Morgan laughed. “Willy, can you get their attention?” William nodded, his eyes fading to white; after five minutes they faded back to normal.

“I can’t find them,” he shrugged.

“Guys, I think something’s wrong,” Noah said loudly. “I can’t feel Haydn at all. I can usually feel something, even if he’s in town.” 

“I can’t find them either,” Nolan added.

“William and Nolan, keep trying to reach them.” Morgan instructed. “Noah, do you think you could feel him if we went into town?” 

“I don’t know, maybe.” 

“It’s worth a try. Connor, can you run him into town?” Morgan asked, Connor was already on his feet.

“Wait, take Beckham with you,” Matt said, getting up from his seat. “He really likes how Haydn smells, so he may be able to track him.” 

“Why don’t you both go?” Morgan suggested. “Just in case he does smell something.” Matt nodded and Beckham guided him to Connor and Noah.

“Does anyone know where they were going?” He asked, grabbing the back of Noah’s neck. 

“Travis said they were going to go to that new burger place downtown,” Freddie told him, pushing himself away from the table. “I’m going to go see if I can get a read on Mitch’s energy. He usually registers on my equipment.” 

“Hold on to him,” Connor instructed Matt. “Brace his neck, specifically.” Matt nodded, picking Beckham’s front paws off of the ground and pulling him against his chest. In the blink of an eye the three of them were gone.

* * *

Connor, Noah, and Matt stopped in an abandoned building, right in the middle of town. Matt let go of Beckham and bent over, taking a few deep breaths.

“That is the worst thing I’ve ever done.” He said, gasping. 

“You’ll get over it in a second or two,” Connor assured him. “Noah, anything?” 

“Not yet,” Noah shook his head. “We need to get closer downtown.” The three left the building and made their way further into town, making sure to check every ally for any signs of life.

“Are we sure they went this way?” Matt asked after a few minutes of walking. “They could have gone-” He was cut off by Beckham, who had broke out into a sprint down the street. The boys followed, watching as Beckham stopped at a crosswalk, talking a seat on the pavement. 

“What was that?” Connor asked, turning to Matt.

“I have no idea, he’s never done anything like that before.”

“Is that-” Noah stopped, crouching down at Beckham’s feet and picking something up off of the pavement. “Haydn’s watch.” He closed his eyes, bringing the watch against his chest.

 

_ We need to get out of here, fuck. _

_ Lets- _

_ What about- _

_ Fuck fuck fuck fuck fu- _

_ Mitch. _

_ Travis.  _

_ Dylan. _

_ Where are the entry holes, shit, where were they- _

_ I’m sorry. _

_ I'm so sorry. _

 

Noah’s eyes shot open to see Connor and Matt standing above him. “What just happened?”

“I could feel him,” Noah gasped. “I could feel what he was feeling before he dropped this. They took him, all of them. I don’t know where they went-”

“Okay, calm down,” Matt said, kneeling down beside him. “We need to get back to Base and tell Mo and-”

“We need to go after them. We need to-” Before he could say anything else, Connor grabbed the back of his neck. He tried to jerk away, but he was too late. 

“Noah found this,” Connor said, tossing the watch to Morgan. “They took them.”

“We need a plan.”

“No shit,” Noah spat. “Where the fuck did they take them?”

“Noah, calm down,” Morgan said. “You know just as much as we do. You’re not helping anything by getting angry.” Noah scowled, storming out of the room.

“Auston, do you mind-” Morgan began. “Can you go see if he’s alright?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay,” Morgan said, taking a deep breath. “Here’s what needs to happen. Matt and Connor, take Nolan and Nico to where you found the watch. See if Beckham can trace the scent anywhere. If he can, follow it and let us know where it leads.” Connor nodded, taking the others and disappearing. “Willy, anything?” 

“Nope, they’re either dead or out cold.” William shook his head.

“Keep trying,” Morgan instructed. “Andrei, fly around town, if you spot anything, let Brock know. Jake, can you go check on Freddie?”

“I’ll go talk to the birds in the meantime,” Brock offered. “One of them had to have seen something.” Morgan nodded in thanks as Brock, Andrei, and Jake left the room. 

“ _ Fuck _ .” Morgan said under his breath.

“Mo, we’re not ready for a fight,” Jeff said quietly, putting his hand on his shoulder.

“I know, Jeff. I don’t think we have much of a choice,” he sighed. “I promised them that they’d be safe with us. I swore they wouldn’t be captured by those fucking-”

“It’s not your fault,” James said, joining them at the head of the table.

“We’ll find them,” Brock added. “And we’ll make them pay.”

“No one attacks our family and gets away with it,” William said, his eyes still white.

* * *

“You okay?” Auston asked, taking a seat next to Noah. He was sitting in the garden, leaning against the tree Haydn had been using to train just a few hours before.

“Not really,” Noah said. He had his legs tucked close to his chest and his head on his knees. “When we picked him up, I promised him that I’d keep him safe. He hates fighting; all he wants to do is garden and shit.” His voice was shaking, but he managed to laugh. “I love that man  _ so fucking much _ and I let him get capture by a bunch of crazy people.”

“This isn’t your fault,” Auston said, slowly putting his arm around Noah’s shoulder. “Haydn’s a lot stronger than he thinks he is, he’ll be fine. He’s with Mitch, Trav, and Dylan too. Mitch will probably talk so much they’ll just release them anyways.” Auston let out a fake laugh, trying his best to lighten the mood. “We’ll find them, alright? Everything’s going to be fine.”

“Aus,” Noah said as tears rolled down his face. “What if they killed them? What if that’s why I can’t feel him?”

“They wouldn’t have killed him,” Auston tried his best to assure him. “Trust me, I’ve been caught like, fifty times. They’re probably chilling in a cell.”

“If he-”

“He won’t. Hanny, they’ll be fine. Either way, worrying won’t help them. We need you- Haydn needs you to be one hundred percent here.” Noah took a deep breath and lifted his head. 

“Okay,” he said, wiping the remaining tears from his eyes.

“Hey, we’ll find them.”

“We  _ have to _ .”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> another update within a week, who am i? i really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, i promise the next one is going to be action packed (and more people are going to be introduced, someone stop me)!
> 
> EDIT: the next chapter won't be out for a while, as I want to focus on my exchange fic! thank you for your understanding!!


	5. CAPTURED

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Torture, gardens, and an escape.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm back! we're nearing the end and it's about to get wild.
> 
> WARNING: this chapter has brief descriptions of injuries, nothing too graphic, but be advised!

Travis couldn’t help but cringe when saw Haydn’s face. Ever since they had seen him try to heal Dylan after a particularly painful experiment they had become obsessed with finding out how he was able to do it.

“I wish they would take someone else,” Dylan said, sitting on the floor of his cell. “ _ Literally _ anyone else. Hell, I’ll go if they’ll stop shoving stuff inside of you.”

“I’m fine, Stromer,” Haydn tried his best to smile, but the swelling in his face was too sever. A week or so ago, they had put an injection in his eye, causing his entire face to swell. “I can heal myself quicker than any of you can. As long as they keep taking me, you’ll be safe.”

“If they weren’t cowards they’d turn off this fucking current,” Mitch said, motioning to the cell door.

“Did they take anyone while I was gone?” Haydn asked, trying to change the subject. 

“Yeah, Barzal,” Travis answered. “But they brought Goat back.” 

“How are you doing, Julien?” Haydn called, his voice echoing through the hallway of cells.

“I’m fine, Dogwood.” Julien called back. “The idiots still haven’t figured out what my power is.”

“Dogwood? That’s a new one,” Dylan laughed. “Flower not specific enough?”

“Nah, I just remembered a guy from when I was younger, we called him Flower so I figured he deserved something more original.”

“Why Dogwood though?”

“It’s the state flower of North Carolina,” Haydn answered for him. “It’s clever, Goat.” 

“How’s your leg doing, Haydn?” A different voice asked from down the hallway.

“It’s a lot better, Roland. What about your arms?”

“Still broken,” Rolan sighed. “Healing, though.”

“I can’t wait until Mo comes so we can bust out of this shit hole.” Dylan complained. “It was cool for a little bit, but now it’s just boring.”

“Boring?” Mitch repeated. “Haydn’s taking a beating _every single_ _fucking_ day, and you’re saying you’re board?”

“I was joking, Mitchy. Relax dude,” he paused, listening carefully. “Someone’s coming.” The footsteps of several people got closer and closer, stopping at Haydn’s cell door.

“103-96-04, back away from the door.” The words had become hauntingly familiar. A low chime rang out of the hallway as the door opened.

“Leave him the fuck alone,” Mitch yelled, pushing on the door of his cell. “Haven’t you already tortured him enough?” As usual, they ignored him, pulling Haydn out of his cell in silence. They strapped him into a wheelchair and pushed him back down the hallway, eventually out of eyesight.

“I swear to god, I’m going to murder every single one of them.” Mitch pushed his door one last time before taking a seat on his cot.

“If you kill them, we’d be just as bad as they are,” Travis said quietly. “We need to expose them. I’m sure everyone is at Base coming up with a plan.”

“Let’s hope it’s a good one,” Dylan added, talking over the sharp screams coming from down the hall.

_ Haydn’s screams. _

* * *

Noah sat quietly in the garden, Haydn’s watch wrapped tightly around his wrist. For the past two months, he had sat in the garden from sun up until sun down, trying desperately to reach out to him.

“Noah, anything?” Auston asked, taking a seat beside him. Noah looked up at him as a single tear rolled down his cheek.

“I can never tell if these are from me or him,” he said quietly. “Sometimes I think I have him, but its only for a second at a time.” He wiped the tear away, unclasping the watch from his wrist and tucking it into his pocket. “How is everyone else doing?”

“Willy and Nolan still haven’t gotten anything, neither has Freddie,” Auston sighed. “Mo, Jeff, and Gards are still trying to come up with a plan, but it’s not going great either.” 

“What about Beckham?”

“Nothing,” he shook his head. Noah pushed himself off of the ground, brushing the grass off of his pants.

“Can I show you something?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“It’s a little crazy,” Noah said, beginning to blush. “Just promise you won’t judge me.”

“Dude, I would never,” Auston said with a smile as he followed Noah out of the garden. He quietly followed him as they made their way past the lake and into the woods. “Are you taking me to the burnt trees?” Auston questioned as they walked, “Because I-” he stopped as they entered a clearing. What had once been acres of burnt trees was now a flourishing garden. Brightly colored flowers, bushes, and trees stretched out for what looked like miles.

“Hanny,  _ hold shit _ .”

“The week after they disappeared I started clearing it out. I got Jeff and Brock to help, but after we cleared everything I thought I should start planting things.” He guided Auston into the sea of flowers to a small bench sitting under a large flowering tree. “He used to joke about how deforestation was going to kill him,” Noah smiled. “So I started off planting these trees,” he pointed to a cluster of trees on the outskirts of the clearing. “Dogwoods. When we were in the warehouse there were a couple outside of my room, he seemed to really like them. Those over there are called  _ Platycodon grandiflorus _ , but they’re more commonly known as balloon flowers.”

“How do you know that?”

“There's this language of flowers, like, they all have a meaning. Haydn has this huge book by his bed that he would read aloud basically every night talking about what all of them mean.”   
“What  _ do _ they mean?” Auston asked, still in awe.

“Endless love,” Noah said quietly. “ _ Helleborus niger,”  _ He said quickly, pointing to a different patch of flowers. “Christmas roses, are supposed to represent relieving your anxiety. Those over there are called cowslips, they represent healing.”

“So, all of these different flowers mean something?” Auston asked, looking at the flowers surrounding him. “Hanny, there’s hundreds of them.” Noah nodded, placing his head in his hands.

“I told you it was crazy.”

“It’s not crazy,” Auston lied, patting him on the shoulder. “It’s really sweet. I’m sure Haydn will love it when he gets back,” He paused, trying to think of something to lighten the mood. “What is this one for?”

“Thoughts of an absent friend,” Noah said, barely glancing at the flower before responding. “They’re called zinnias.”

“Maybe we should head back to the house,” Auston suggested, placing his hand on Noah’s back.

“Yeah, sure.”

* * *

“How long are they going to keep him in there?” Roland called down the hall. “He’s been in there for hours.” 

“Can you stop pacing?” Dylan called back. “I won’t be able to hear them coming if you keep moving.”

“Sorry, I pace when I’m nervous.”

“Yeah, I can tell.”

“They’ve never kept anyone this long,” Travis said quietly. “I wonder what’s happening.”

“It didn’t seem like they were setting up anything special when I was in there.” Another voice said from the hallway.

“To be fair, Matt,” Mitch called down the hall. “You were strapped to a chair.”

“Yeah, true.”

“Dylan, you’ve been back there more than any of us, what do you think they’re doing?”

“I don’t know,” Dylan shrugged, not moving his eyes from the dark hallway. “Torture, pain, you know, all the regular evil government stuff.”

“Maybe he’s-” Julien was cut off by the lights flickering. “Did you guys see that?”

“Yeah, it looks like there was just a surge-” Again the lights flashed on and off.

“Mitch,” Dylan harshly whispered, whipping his head towards Mitch’s cell. “if you can plan it just right, I bet you can blink out of here next time they do that,” 

“What about you guys?” Mitch questioned. “I’m not just going to leave you guys here.”

“We’ll be fine,” Travis said quietly. “Find out where we are, then go to Base.”

“I can come, too.” Julien said from down the hall. “Do you know where the diner is downtown?”

“Meet in the alley beside it?” Mitch asked.

“Exactly.” Mitch quickly pushed himself up, intently watching the lights, waiting for them to go out. When they finally did, he had just enough time to disappear in a puff of light blue smoke.

“Julien?” Travis called, making sure he had gotten out successfully. When there was no answer, he knew they were in the clear.

“Finally, we’re going to get the fuck out of here.”

“Yeah, let’s just hope they come back in time. I don’t know how long Haydn can keep doing this.” As if on cue, a sharp scream rang out through the darkness. Travis winced, tightly closing his eyes.

“ _ Please hurry, _ ” He whispered, laying his head in his hands.

* * *

“How are you holding up, Auston?” Johnny asked as he took a seat at the dinner table.

“I’m fine,” Auston said, forcing a smile. “Well, as fine as I can be. I know me getting emotional isn’t going to help anything, but-” he stopped himself. “I miss Mitch.”

“How’s the plan going, Mo?” Connor asked, shaking his head. “I’m ready to go get our friends.”

“We’re working on it, we just need a little more time,” Jake answered for him.

“We don’t have time,” Connor spat. “Dylan is out there being fucking tortured and we’re all just sitting here doing nothing. How are we-”

“Davo.” Auston stopped him. “He said they’re working on it. I know it’s hard,  _ trust me _ , but if we go in with no plan we are all going to get hurt.”

“Aus, _ we don’t even know where they are _ . What good is a plan if we don’t have the location?” Just as Connor finished his sentence, there was a loud bang at the door. 

“Are we expecting someone?” Jeff asked, standing up.

“New recruits?” Morgan questioned as the banging on the door got progressively louder.

“Let’s find out,” Auston said, pushing himself away from the table. “Everyone get out of sight.” He casually made his way to the door, opening it to see the face he’d been wishing to see for the past month.

_ Mitch’s face _ .

“Aus,” Mitch started, grabbing him by the shoulders and pulling him into a tight embrace. “ _ You have no idea _ -”

“Mitch?” Jake asked, peeking his head out from the threshold of the dining room. “Come in.” 

“Wow, you look awful,” Brett said bluntly as they entered the room.

“Where were you? What happened?” Morgan questioned as the three took a seat at the table. “Who are you?”

“This is Julien Gauthier,” Mitch started. “He was in there with us. There was a power surge in the room with all of the cells, we were able to escape. Mo, everyone else is still there, we need to go get them before-” Mitch stopped himself from finishing his sentence. “It’s getting bad, Mo.”   
“Do you know where they were holding you?” 

“From the outside it looks like a factory,” Julien answered. “It’s about fifty miles north of town.

“Freddie, go get your projector,” William said. “Mitch, I’m going into your head to-”

“Go for it,” Mitch stopped him. “It’ll be a hell of a lot faster if you can see what I was seeing.” It took a few minutes for Freddie to set up the projector, but as soon as he did William was inside of Mitch’s head.

“Only the important stuff, Mitchy. We’re not going to watch two month’s worth of memories.” 

For the next two hours, all twenty six of the boys sat and watched the torturous two months that Mitch and the others had endured. He was lucky enough to have only gone to the experimentation room once, never having anyone lay a finger on him; they strapped him to a table, did an MRI, and sent him back to his cell.

“Who was screaming?” Sebastian asked as the projector flickered off. “It was the same voice every time.”

“Haydn.” Mitch hung his head. “They saw him try and heal Stromer and got obsessed with figuring out how he’s able to do it.”

“That was all-” Noah stopped himself as tears began to form in his eyes. He slowly got up from the table and walked out of the room.

“Auston,” Morgan didn’t have to finish his thought.

“On it.” Auston followed Noah out, leaving Mitch to finish his explanation.

“I don’t know how much longer Haydn can take this. We need to go get them out. Now.”

“Mitch, we can’t just storm in there without a plan, we need to be calculated,” Jeff explained. “We’ve been thinking that we can use this as an opportunity to expose them to the public.”

“Yeah,” Freddie joined. “I’ve come up with a bigger version of projector that, hypothetically, will be able to broadcast William’s mind to every phone, computer, and television screen in North America.”

“The plan right now is to have Willy jump into someone while we raid the building they were keeping you in. They’ll walk around and let everyone see what the government has been doing to mutants. After that, it’s out of our hands.” Morgan finished.

“After that, all we can do is hope the public gets mad and demands change,” Jake added.

“When can we start?” Mitch asked, glancing around the table. Everyone seemed to be onboard with the plan.

“As soon as I’m done modifying the projector. Shouldn’t take more than a day or two.”

“Good."

* * *

“Why did it have to be him?” Noah asked, his head in his hands. “He’s never hurt anyone.”

“I know, it’s not fair.” Auston tried his best to comfort him. They had ended up back in Noah’s garden in the woods. “We know where he is now, so we can go get him.”

“He’s already been tortured.” Noah shook his head. “You heard him screaming. He’s been in that hellscape for  _ two months _ , who knows what they’ve been doing to him?”

“All we can do now is go along with the plan. Mo and Jeff and Jake, they know what they’re doing; we’re going to get him out of there.”

“What if we’re too late?” Noah said, barely whispering. “You saw- he’s been-” he couldn’t finish.

“You’re underestimating him,” Auston said, putting his arm around Noah’s shoulder. “Haydn’s strong. There’s no way he’d let himself go down in a shithole like that.”

“He hates blood. He hates fighting.”

“I know.”

‘We have to go get him back.”

“We will,” Auston said, pushing himself off of the ground. “And when we do, you can show him this place. He’ll love it.” He extended his hand down to Noah, who took it. They walked back to Base just in time to see everyone get up from the dining room table.

“Hanny,” Mitch’s voice stopped him from going up the stairs. “I’m sorry.”

“Why would you be sorry? It’s not like you were torturing him,” Noah shrugged, trying his best to keep his tears at bay.

“We tried to get them to take someone else, but they want-”

“Mitch, you don’t owe me an explanation.”

“I know, I just feel like there’s more-”

“There’s not,” Noah stopped him. He offered him a small smile before turning back to the stairs. Before he could go, Mitch grabbed him from behind and pulled him in for a hug.

* * *

“I’m glad you’re okay, Mitchy,” Connor said as he and Mitch sat on the floor of his room. “I can’t believe you were in there for so long.”

“Yeah, it sucks in there,” Mitch sighed. “That’s why we have to hurry.”

“So,” Connor said quietly after a few seconds of silence. “How’s Stromer doing?”

“You’re relationship is baffling.”

“What? I just asked if he was okay.”

“You don’t have to pretend you don’t care about him, everyone knows you guys are fuc-”

“Nevermind.”

“He’s fine,” Mitch said with a small smile. “Until they saw Haydn try to heal him, he was back in the experimenting room almost every day. They never did anything too bad to him though, just took a lot of samples.”

“ _ Thank god, _ ” Connor said under his breath.

“Just an idea,” Mitch said, pushing himself off of the ground and walking towards the door, “Maybe you guys can try actually expressing your feelings. It’s a lot easier than this weird secret relationship thing you’re trying to pull.”

* * *

“How long do you think it’s going to take them?” Roland asked from down the hall.

“Who knows?” Dylan yawned.

“They have to have come up with a plan by now, I mean, we’ve been here  _ forever _ ,” Travis said, trying his best to look down the dark hallway. “How long have they had Haydn back there?”

“Twenty-six hours.” Dylan answered.

“What if they’re not coming? How well do you know these guys?”

“Trust me Barzal, they’ll come,” Dylan scoffed. “Connor wouldn’t leave me- I mean us, here.”

“Your boyfriend, Connor?”

“Not my boyfriend,” Dylan rolled his eyes. “And now that Mitch is there they’ll have no choice. Not that they were just going to leave us here anyways.”

“They’ll be here any day now,” Travis nodded. “When they come-”

“Dude, shut up.” Dylan cut him off. “Someone’s coming.”

“Open 103-97-04’s cell.”

“Why don’t you open the cells and fight us instead of standing out there like a bunch of cowards?” Dylan snarled as two men tossed Haydn into his cell.

“Close the door.” With that, the men disappeared down the hallway.

“Haydn?  _ Haydn _ .” Travis whispered, peering through their shared cell wall. “Are you okay?”

“Fine,” Haydn said, trying his best to smile.

“Mitch and Julien got out,” he said, even quieter than before. “They’re going to get help.”

“Wha-” Haydn propped himself in the corner. His face wasn’t as swollen as it had been when he left, but there were significantly more cuts and bruises. His shirt was gone, and in its place was a crudely wrapped bandage around his midsection and right arm. “How?”

“There was a power surge that let them blink out. They’re going to get Mo; they’ll get us out of here.”

“How are you holding up, Dogwood?” Roland called through the darkness.

“I’m good.”

“He’s  _ not  _ good,” Dylan corrected. “I can’t see him, but I sure as hell can tell when someone’s bullshitting.”

“I’m alive, aren’t I?”

“Alive and okay aren’t interchangeable. Travis, how’s he looking?”

“Uh,” Travis paused. “Honestly, he’s hard to look at.”

“Yeah, he was like that before though.” Dylan joked. “Guess he’s not that bad, afterall.”

“Thanks, Stromer.” Haydn let out a shallow laugh. The boys sat there in silence for a large part of the night, waiting for the men to return and take one of them away. It was times like this that Haydn swore he could feel Noah. A warm feeling grew from inside of his chest, as if he was being wrapped in a hug from the inside out. A single tear rolled down his face as the feeling disappeared, as it usually did in these situations. This time though, he was left with a thought, as if he had just been listening to Noah speak and his last words were still fresh in his mind.

_ I’m coming for you. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm anticipating two or three more chapters, so stay tuned!


	6. BREAK

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A broadcast, a fight, and a prison break.  
> The beginning of the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **this chapter includes fighting, gunshots, and a VERY brief description of injury. please be advised.
> 
> so i was originally intending for this chapter to be a lot longer, but i decided to break it up to add to the suspense. i'm finishing it up now, so it'll probably be out by the end of the week (if not by the end of the day).

“ _Get your ass to the dining room, we’re starting in five minutes with or without you.”_

William’s voice rang through everyone’s mind. Everyone had scattered between Base and the Barn earlier that day, splitting into groups to do combat training. Soon, all twenty six of the guys were inside of the dining room, crowded around the table. In the center, there was a large projection of a building.

“I swear, every time I come into this room it gets smaller,” Brock complained.

“Yeah, seriously,” Brett agreed. “Maybe we should start doing these in a bigger room.”

“Now’s not the time,” Jeff cut them off. “We’ve finally got a plan.”

“Take it away, Mitchy.” Morgan motioned to the projection, prompting everyone to pay attention.

“This is where they’re being held,” Mitch explained. “If we’re going to get them out, we have to get through three layers of security.”

“Before any of that there’s two fences, both of which shouldn’t pose too much of a problem for me,” Julien cut in. “I’ll portal everyone through with no problem.”

“The first problem will be the security guards outside.” Morgan swiped his hand through the projection, causing it to zoom in on the building. “As soon as they see us coming they’ll call for reinforcements.”

“That’s why we’re splitting up,” Jeff added.

“Right,” Morgan continued. “Martin, Andrei, Johnny, Sebastian, Jeff, Nate, and Boeser will stay outside and deal with the guards while everyone else gets inside. From there we’ll split into two teams.”

“Teuvo, Nico, McGinn, Brett, Matt, Zee, Jack, and Julien will go with me,” Jake said, gesturing to the projector as it began to show the inside of the building. A red line and a blue line appeared in the door and started to trace a route through the cells. “We’re the red; our job will be to get as many people out as we can. Julien, if we find someone who’s too injured to fight it’ll be your job to get them out of there.”

“Trevor and James will be stationed outside of the first gate, waiting for you. Guys, it’ll be your job to watch over those people until we can all regroup.” Trevor and James nodded quietly in unison as Morgan continued. “Charlie, Auston, Connor, Nolan, and Mitch are with me. Our job is to get Dylan and Haydn.”

“They’ve started taking Haydn back for really long periods of time, so we’ll need to go get him separately. Dylan can show us how to get to the experimentation room.” Mitch explained. “Once we get Haydn, I’ll blink him out.”

“William and I will stay here, making sure our stream is running smoothly.” Freddie added.

“Yeah, I’ll be inside of Nolan, so make sure no one kills him,” William winked.

“It’s more than likely that most of us will get caught up and not make it to the room, but it’s _crucial_ that Nolan gets back there, so we can show the world what they’ve been doing.”

“Mitch needs to get back there, too. He’ll be the only person who will be able to get everyone out quickly.”

“Assuming everything goes as planned, here’s how we’re going to escape.” The projection shifted again, this time showing the outside of the building again. “Mitch will grab Haydn, Dylan, Nolan, and whoever else is with him first. Connor, while he’s doing that you can grab whoever’s around you. Julien, you’re in charge of your group, plus whoever adds onto it. Everyone will meet with James and Trevor. Mitch and Julien will get everyone back here once we’re sure everyone is out.”

“We’re not leaving until we’ve gotten Nolan back to that room,” Jeff added. “He’s our only chance to expose them.”

“Any questions?”

“When do we start?” Brett asked from the head of the table.

“Tomorrow night.” Jeff answered. “It’ll be easier to sneak up on them when it’s dark.”

“Everyone go get some rest. We’ve only got one chance to do this.” Morgan dismissed them. With that, the crowd dispersed, most of them making their way up the stairs to their rooms.

“How are you feeling?” Auston asked Noah before he had the chance to disappear into his room.

“Anxious, scared, sick, you know, the usual feelings.”

“We’ll get him,” Auston smiled. “Try and get some rest.”

“I will,” Noah nodded, knowing he wouldn’t be able to fulfill his promise.

* * *

The next morning was quiet in Base. The boys got up at their own pace and made their way down to the kitchen for breakfast. They were under strict instructions not to do any sort of group combat practice, but to do vigorous stretching and solo work. By noon everyone was awake and busy, no one wanting to be as vocal as they usually were. Every floor of the Barn was full of people wanting to get in some last minute target practice, just in case.

By six o’clock the group were huddled in the dining room, going over the plan one last time.

“Everyone take one of these, they should interfere with the current that they’re lining the cells with so you’ll still be able to use your powers,” Morgan said, passing each person a bracelet. It looked like a watch, made out of a black plastic material, but instead of a face there was a small screen. “Flick your wrist up, as if you were checking a watch, and it will show you the direction to go to meet up with your group leader, myself, Jake, or Jeff.”

“If you tap once on the screen it will show you to either Mitch or Julien,” Freddie continued. “Three taps and you’ll send them and the  group leaders your location. Use this only if your injured or if you need an immediate evacuation.”

“Everyone also needs an earpiece.” Jake said, passing around a basket full of small, flesh colored devices. “This is how we’re going to communicate. To use it, just press the back of whichever ear it’s in.”

“Mo,” Sebastian said quietly, peering through the window. “Sun’s going down.”

“Time to go,” he nodded. “Julien?”

“On it.” Julien extended his arm to the side. A red oval appeared from thin air, revealing a forest in the middle of it. “This is right outside the first gate. Everyone go through and we’ll wait for your signal, Freddie.”

“Be safe guys,” William nodded. One by one everyone stepped through Julien’s portal, until only Freddie, William, Julien, and Nolan remained in the room.

“Let’s hope this thing works.” Freddie huffed, adjusting a few knobs on his switchboard.

“Ready, Patrick?”

“I guess.” William closed his eyes. As Nolan’s eyes faded into a brilliant blue, William’s shot open and were completely white. Freddie’s projector flickered to life, showing exactly what Nolan would have been looking at.

“You’re good to go,” Freddie nodded to Julien. “Keep him safe, please.”

“Yeah, we can’t exactly do a retake.” William and Nolan said in unison. With that, the two stepped through the portal and landed on the other side, right outside of a chain link fence.

“William, signal still good?” Morgan asked, placing his hand on Nolan’s shoulder.

“Perfect.” Nolan nodded.

“Okay,” Morgan switched his attention to Nico, who was standing with his group. “Nico, you’re in charge of getting everyone inside. If you’re invisible, you should have no problem slipping past the fight. Everyone stick to him until you’re past the guards.”

“And remember,” Jeff said, looking around at the group “We’re not here to kill people, so just try and knock them out. If we kill them, we’re no better than they are.”

“Does everyone know what they’re doing?” Everyone nodded, not daring to say anything. “Alright, let’s go.”

Julien extended his arm, creating a red portal leading to an open field. One by one the first group went through. Jake’s group followed, all of them grabbing onto Nico and disappearing as soon as they were on the other side. Morgan’s group was last, all putting a hand on his body and disappearing into the field.

“How are we supposed to get their attention?” Johnny whispered as they approached the building.

“I’ll take care of that,” Martin smirked.

“Oh no,” Andrei shook his head. “Please be careful.” Martin looked back at him with a smile before breaking into a sprint towards the building.

“Hey assholes!” He yelled, coming to a dead stop about a yard from the doors. “Hope you don’t have dinner plans,” as he spoke he began to glow an almost blinding shade of white. Dark clouds filled the sky and it began to rain. Thunder boomed as lightning bolts shot from all angles, all projecting from Martin’s body which was now hovering twenty feet off of the ground.

“Guess that’s our cue,” Johnny shrugged, running to where Martin had once been standing. He pushed his hands forward, unleashing a large burst of fire. Nate followed with the rest of group, joining Johnny as the guards began to engage. A loud whistle was heard from the back of the fight and soon after hundreds of large birds were swarming around the fight, attaching the guards. A group of five Jeffs appeared, each running towards a guard in hopes of distraction them.

“Get them away from the door,” Sebastian’s soft voice rang through their earpieces.

“On it,” Martin answered. A second later a huge burst of lightning hit the door, causing the guards to scatter into the field.

“Nice one, Necy!” Andrei yelled from the air.

“On your left, Nate,” Johnny yelled, cutting the mini-celebration short. Nate whipped around with his hands out, creating a shield of ice just as the bullet crossed into his path.

The fight continued like this, one person shouting a command and the others following, for what felt like an eternity until, out of the corner of his eye, Jeff saw a figure creep through door.

* * *

“Be careful, everyone,” Jake whispered before parting with the rest of his group. They walked silently through the dark cell-lined hallway, all of which were empty.

“All of these cells have files, but no people,” Brett said quietly. “105-86-32 Jonathan Quick. 105-89-17 Matt Martin. 105-84-12 Eric Staal. Where are they?”

“Dead,” Valentin said softly. “Everyone that was here is- look at the top of the page.” He pointed to the top of the file Brett was holding. In small red writing was a time and date of death, along with a method.

“They’re-” Brock started. “That’s disgusting. How can they just kill these people?”

“To them, we’re not people,” Teuvo answered, continuing down the hallway. “We’re mutants. They want-”

“There’s something moving up there,” Matt cut him off, putting his hand on Beckham’s back. “Go see, bud.” Beckham trotted ahead, stopping at one of cells and happily taking a seat near the door.

“Please tell me I’m not hallucinating,” a voice rang out from the cell. “Are you a real dog or am I going crazy?”

“One of us,” Matt said, walking to meet Beckham. The group followed, stopping in front of the cell. Inside there was a large man with long brown hair; his face was badly bruised and his clothes were ripped, but he otherwise looked unharmed.

“You wanna get out of this shit-hole?” Brett asked with a smirk.

“Who the hell are you guys?” the man in the cell responded, taking a step back from the door.

“Barzal?” Julien asked, pushing his way to the cell door. “Wow, you look awful.”

“Goat?” the man asked with a smile. “I thought you weren’t coming back.”

“And leave you guys? Nah,” Julien smiled. “Let’s get you out of here.” he stepped to the side and Jake took his place, easily bending a person-sized hole in the cell door; Matt slipped through with ease.

“Why did they move you over here?” Julien asked after giving him a hug.

“Apparently we were too talkative,” Matt shrugged. “You guys going to get everyone else?”

“Yep,” Brock answered. “You coming?”

“Of course.” Jack handed him a bracelet before continuing down the hallway.

“You know where they’re keeping Stromer?” Teuvo asked.

“Five rows back, they kept him and Dogwood together. To be honest, I think they’re a little scared of him.”

“As they should be,” Brock nodded. “One time, he bit me because I ate the last breadstick.”

“Mo, can you hear me?” Jake asked, his finger pressed against his ear.

“Yeah, go ahead Jake,” Morgan’s voice rang through everyone’s ear-piece.

“Dylan is five rows over from our location, I’m sending it now.”

“Thanks, Jake,” Noah’s voice was heard. “We’re heading that way now.”

“Okay, Matt, do you know where anyone else is?”  
“No, sorry,” Matt sighed. “They moved me first, so I didn’t get a chance to see where anyone else went.”

“Then we keep moving forward,” Jake nodded. “We’ll find everyone else eventually.”

“Why don’t we split up?” Teuvo suggested. “This place is huge, there’s no way we’re going to be able to sweep the whole place like this.”

“Good idea Turbo,” Jake agreed. “Nico, Zee, Jack stay with me, Barzal can lead us. Julien, Brock, Matt, Brett go with Teuvo. Send updates every time you clear a row.”

“Sounds good,” Brock nodded.

“Be safe.”

* * *

“Five,” Connor finished counting. “They should be down this hall.”

“Dylan?” Mitch whispered loudly. “Where are you at, man?”

“Mitchy?” Dylan’s voice rang out of the darkness. “You better be here to rescue me,”

“Nope,” Mitch smirked, following the sound of his voice. “I brought Davo for a conjugal visit, though.”

“Fuck you, dude.”

“You ready to get out of here, Stromer?” Morgan asked, finally finding his cell.

“Where’s everyone else?”

“Half of them are outside fighting off guards, the other half is sweeping the hallways looking for other mutants.”

“Where’s Haydn?”

“Hello to you too, Hanny,” Dylan said with a smirk. “ _No_ _how are you_?”

“Not the time, Strome.”

“Let me get to the door,” Charlie said, pushing his way past Noah and Morgan. He stuck his finger into the keyhole, wiggling it side to side until the door popped open.

“I forgot how gross your power was,” Dylan wrinkled his nose. “Haydn is this way. There are going to be a lot of guys there.”  
“We haven’t run into anyone yet.”

“Because they’re all back there,” Mitch said. “Whenever they bring Haydn back, everyone but a few security people go with him.”

“Why?” Noah asked, obviously concerned.

“Who knows? Maybe they enjoy watching him get tortured.” Dylan shrugged. “Why don’t we go back and ask.” The group followed Dylan as he lead them quickly down the hallway to a large metal door. “Behind that door there are two guards and another door. Behind that one is the test lab where they’re keeping Haydn.”

“I’ll take care of the door,” Auston said. “Noah, you get the guys.” He approached the door, blinked a couple of times before unleashing a sharp stream of light from his eyes. He concentrated on the lock until it was completely gone, leaving a hole in the door where it once was. He motioned to Noah as he opened the door, the guards barely had time to react before Noah had his hands on their foreheads.

“Sleep.” With Noah’s word they both fell to the ground. “Next,” he said, motioning Auston to the next door.

“Is everyone ready?” Morgan said, turning to the rest of the group.

“As I’ll ever be.”

“William, signal still good?” he asked Nolan’s body.

“Yep. Let’s get these bastards.”

“Go ahead, Auston.” On Morgan’s mark Auston again focused his beam onto the lock of the door until it was gone. He paused for a second before opening the door.

“What the hell-” a man in a lab coat said as Noah entered the room. Before he could say anything else, Connor was gone. A split second later everyone in the room was on the ground, being struck with whatever happened to be around them. Connor appeared on the same place he started in, stretching out his arms.

“Let’s just get Haydn and get out of here,” he said quietly. “This place is creeping me out.”

“Turn it on, Freddie.” Morgan said, again turning to Nolan’s body. There was a few seconds of silence before he responded.

“You’re broadcasting.” Morgan nodded before beginning to speak. “My name is Morgan Rielly, but to you governments I’m just a number, 105-94-44. For years, your government has been hunting mutants, bringing them to facilities like the one I’m standing in, running tests and experiments on them, and then _murdering_ them. Our friends and family are being slaughtered just because they were born with a power. I’m standing here today because we’ve had enough. We’re tired of hiding. We’re tired of worrying about our safety every time we go outside. Our friends, _our brothers_ , were taken to this facility months ago. They’ve been mistreated, beaten, and tortured.” As he spoke, he lead Nolan over to a table where a body was lying motionless.

_Haydn’s body._

“This man, _my friend_ , is fighting for his life because he tried to heal someone else. They’ve done nothing but experiment on him for almost two straight months because he was trying to _help his friend_.” He paused, letting Nolan get a good look at Haydn’s mangled body. “Take a look around, this is what your governments do to people who are different. Think of your children, your significant other, your friends who are different. This is what will happen to them if this is allowed to continue. Mutant or not, we need to unite-”

“Stop!” A voice was heard and then a gunshot. Before Morgan could react, Connor’s body crumbled to the ground in front of him.

“Connor-” Dylan fell to the ground before he could finish his sentence.

“Mitch, GO!” Two more shots. Morgan and Auston both fell. Mitch grabbed Nolan’s body and blinked to Haydn.

“Everyone out!” Noah said, his hand on his ear.

Mitch blinked out of the room just in time to hear two more shots.

* * *

Hundreds of guards stalked the building, shooting on sight without hesitation. This time, there were no tranquilizers, these were real bullets. One by one the mutants fell and one by one Mitch and Julien were seconds too late. They collected the bodies of their friends, taking them quickly back to Base before going back to the battlefield. Julien was the last to go, getting hit just as he was portaling away.

 

They could have never seen it coming, never anticipated the sheer number of people at the facility.

 

_There was nothing they could have done._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter came out of nowhere. i started writing, expecting them to all be fine, just a quick in and out kinda mission, but noooooo we can't have anything nice in this house.
> 
> check the tags, there's a little spoiler in them :)


	7. FLOWERS

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Twenty-one people, gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> one chapter left! sorry that this one is a little shorter than usual, i hit a block and decided to go ahead and publish it!

“How many?” Jeff asked harshly, pacing the room.

“Twenty-one.”

“Twenty-one people, gone,” Sebastian said quietly, leaning his head on Teuvo’s shoulder. “We were doing so well.”

“How did this happen?”

“There were too many of them. We could have never anticipated that many people all at once.” Travis said, his head in his hands. “I wish you would have kept us there.” 

“You know we would have never done that, Trav.” Mitch said, putting his arm around his shoulder. “Haydn knew this was going to happen. I tried to tell him that they were just dreams, but he knew they weren’t.”

“What are you talking about?” Jeff asked, stopping in his tracks.

“Remember when everyone thought we were sleeping together? That morning outside he was telling me about a reoccuring dream he had. He said that he’d seen all of us die.”

“How could that possibly be true?”

“I don’t know. But he was right, wasn’t he? He started listing off people, Auston, Connor, Dylan, Morgan. They’re all gone and Haydn predicted it.”

“What can’t he do?” Teuvo asked under his breath.

“Revive people.” Sebastian answered quietly.

“I wish there was a bright side to all of this,” Travis said, not hearing the two talk.

“There is,” Freddie said. “The programs are being shut down, people are outraged.”

“Good.” William spat. “We just lost twenty-one people for no fucking reason.”

* * *

“Guys?” Haydn appeared in the threshold. Mitch, Travis, Teuvo, Sebastian, Freddie, William, Nolan, and Jeff had been sitting in the dining room all day, collecting their thoughts. “What happened? Where is everyone.”

“Haydn,” Mitch started, his tone grim. “We came to get everyone, but-”

“Where are they?” Haydn cut him off.

“Gone.”

“What do you mean gone? Where did they go?”

“They’re dead, Haydn,” Nolan blurted out, his eyes red from tears. “All of them.” Haydn’s expression dropped. “Your dreams were right. Everyone is dead-  _ Nico is dead _ .”

“I- Are they here?”

“We haven’t gotten a chance to bury them.”

“Let me see them.”   
“Haydn, I don’t think that’s a good-”

“Let me see them,” Haydn repeated, more forceful than before.

“Fine,” Mitch said, getting out of his seat. He lead Haydn outside Base, past the Barn and the lake. They ended up in the a clearing full of brightly colored trees and flowers. In the middle of it, laid the motionless, pale bodies of twenty-one men. Beckham sat quietly beside Matt’s arm, not moving the two approached. Haydn didn’t bother looking around, he headed straight to Noah’s side. He fell to the ground, placing his head on Noah’s chest. Mitch watched as he weeped silently, his hand gripping tightly to Noah’s shirt.

“I can fix this,” he said quietly between breaths. “I promise you I can fix this.” As Haydn continued to cry, the flowers around him began to grow, wrapping themselves around the twenty-one men. Beckham popped up and ran to Mitch’s side to avoid being consumed. A bright yellow light shown through the flowers, as if the bodies beneath them were glowing. 

“Haydn?” Mitch called through the field. “What’s happening?” Mitch stood there for ten minutes without a sound. After twenty he blinked back to Base and grabbed the others. They all stayed in the garden for another hour, watching the glowing flowers.

* * *

Nolan sat on Nico’s bed with his arms around his legs, squeezing them as close to his chest as he could.  _ How did this happen? _ Not only had he lost the love of his life, but now he couldn’t give him a proper burial. He had stood in the garden for an hour, hoping the bodies would re-emerge from the glowing flowers, but no such luck. He felt like he had been crying for days; ever since he got the news his eyes had been filled with tears.

“Patrick?” William’s voice was accompanied by a knock at the door. “I know you’re in there, dude. I can hear you crying from downstairs.”

“What do you want, Willy?”

“Can I come in?”

“I want to be alone Wil-” before he could finish his sentence, William was opening the door. “Or you can let yourself in, that’s fine too.” He walked over to the bed and took a seat beside Nolan, trying his best not to make eye contact with him.

“Look, I’m not good at this kind of stuff,” he said, picking at his thumb. “But things are going to be okay. I know it sucks, but there’s nothing you - or any or us - could have done. We just have to accept that and move-” William was cut off by Nolan, whose arms were wrapped around his neck.

“I wish I could have been there, you know?” Nolan said, his face buried in William’s neck. “Maybe I could have done something if I was there.”

“You couldn’t,” William said bluntly, patting him awkwardly on the back. “You probably would have died.”

“I should have-”

“You did what you were supposed to do,” William cut him off. “Don’t try to find a way to blame yourself for this.”

“I miss him  _ so much _ ,” Nolan sniffed, finally letting go of William’s neck. “I’m never going to see him again. I’m never going to get to tell him that I love him.”

“Do you remember what happened?” William asked, sighing. Nolan shook his head. “When you saw him fighting you broke away from me, I’ve never experienced anything like it before; I was still in your body, but you were in control. You ran straight to him and tried to get him out of the fight,” he paused, collecting his words. “Nico died knowing how much you care about him.”

“Thank you,” Nolan said, his eyes still filled with tears.

“I’m uh- I’m going to go now.” William said after a few seconds of silence. “I’ll see you later.”

* * *

It had been twenty-three hours, fifty-six minutes, and twelve seconds since Haydn disappeared into the glowing flowers. Mitch knew, because he had been counting. He had been in the garden the entire time, watching in awe as the mounds of flowers glowed with a brilliant gold light. Everyone else had time to gone back inside, slept, eaten breakfast, and come back outside just in time to hear a strange noise coming from the flowers. It wasn’t quite a moan,  _ but it wasn’t not a moan either _ .

“What is that?” Jack asked, leaning towards the garden. “It sounds like-”

“Huh?” A voice finally rang out from beneath the plants. “What the fuck-”

“Dylan?” Travis questioned, running towards the voice. He shoved his hand into the flowers and ripped them away, revealing Dylan’s completely animate body. All of his cuts and bruises were gone, replaced with a glowing complexion.

“Trav,  _ what the fuck _ is happening?” Before he could answer, a sneeze was heard from beneath a different bed of flowers. Beckham ran towards the noise, digging them up until he revealed an arm. The arm reached towards the flowers and ripped them away.

“I’m allergic to pollen.” Matt’s face poked out from the ground. “Where am I?”

One by one, each pile of flowers made a noise and, one by one, those noises turned into people. 

“Ugh-” Nico’s voice echoed through the garden. “Nolan?”

“Nico!” Nolan pushed through the flowers and fell to the ground where he had heard Nico’s voice. “Hold on.” He frantically grabbed at the flowers until Nico was able to push himself out. Before he could do anything else Nolan’s arms were wrapped tightly around his neck. 

“What’s happening?” Nico asked, his head on Nolan’s shoulder. 

“I love you  _ so _ much,” Nolan whispered. “I’m never going to let anything happen to you again. _ I promise _ .” The two sat there for a while, Nolan refusing to let Nico go.

 

Fifteen minutes later, the only people that were missing were Haydn and Noah.

“So, what happened, exactly?” Dylan asked. “Because the last thing I remember is Davo getting shot.”

“You got shot,” Mitch explained. 

“I  _ what _ ?” Dylan’s eyes shot open. He patted himself down, looking for bullet holes. 

“You died,” Freddie said. “Everyone did.”

“We got everyone’s body out and brought them here so we could bury you.” Mitch continued. “Then Haydn came in and started crying, flowers started growing like crazy, then the flowers started made a weird cocoon thing around all of your bodies and they started glowing and like, an hour later you were alive.”

“So we died, got wrapped in a flower cocoon, started glowing, and were resurrected?” Connor repeated.

“Yeah, that sums it up.”

“You know what, I don’t even care. I’m happy to be not dead.” Dylan smiled, grabbing Connor’s hand. “I’m glad you’re not dead, too. Watching you die sucked.”

“Thanks.” Connor said, flashing him a small smile.

“You guys are so weird,” Mitch scrunched up his nose. He laid his head on Auston’s shoulder, who was sitting beside him quietly. “What do you think is taking them so long-” As if on cue, Noah’s voice cut him off.

“Haydn?” Jack jumped up and began pulling at the flowers surrounding them. He quickly exposed most of Noah’s body. “Jack? What’s going on?”

“Wait, where’s Haydn?” Mitch asked, placing his hand on the ground where Haydn once sat.

“I just saw him, he was laying on my chest but then a bunch of flowers covered him up.” Noah pushed himself off of the ground, inspecting the area around him for any sign of Haydn.

“He was right here,” Mitch said, pulling at the flowers on the ground.

“Woah, Mitch! It took me forever to plant those!” Noah shouted, grabbing Mitch’s arm.

“I don’t understand, where did he go?”

“Can someone  _ please  _ explain what’s happening?”

“Long story short,” Auston said, “Haydn revived twenty-one people and disappeared.”

“I’m sorry, did you say revived? Like from the dead?”

“Yeah, we were all dead,” Dylan said, as if it was old news.

“Well, he couldn’t have just dissolved. He has to be around here somewhere.”

“This morning I would have told you he couldn’t resurrect people,” Teuvo shrugged. “We don’t know what he can do.”

“I don’t think  _ he _ knows what he can do,” Sebastian added.

* * *

A week later, Haydn was still missing. Everyday, a group of guys would go sit with Noah in his garden, hoping he would show up. 

“He can’t be gone,” Noah said, taking a seat next to Matt and Beckham under a tree.

“I’m sure he’ll come back,” Jack reassured him. “He’s not gone. I mean, he wouldn’t just leave you.”

“You’ve been saying that for a week,” Noah sighed.

“And I’ve meant it for a week, Hanny.”

“I agree,” Matt said with a smile. “There’s no way he would just-” he was interrupted by Beckham who had jumped up, his focus on a patch of flowers under a dogwood. He ran over, pawing at the grass.

“What is he doing?”

“He probably saw a bug,” Matt shrugged. “He loves chasing grasshoppers.” The boys watched as Beckham continued to paw at the ground. Suddenly, a hand broke through, followed by a body.

_ Haydn’s body. _

He shot up, gasping for air. He was covered in dirt, but he looked radiant; his skin was glowing and all of his cuts and bruises had disappeared. Noah sat there for a second, in shock. He watched as Haydn pushed himself out of the ground and as Beckham danced happily around him.

“Hey, Becks,” Haydn said with a smile. “I’m glad to see you, buddy.” He kneeled down, patting Beckham on the head. “Where’s everyone else?”

“I  _ definitely  _ wasn’t expecting that,” Jack said, standing up and walking to Haydn. “How are you feeling, Haydn?”

“Jack!” Haydn pulled him into a tight hug. “I’m great. Where is everyone?”

“Base,” Matt said, joining them. “You scared everyone, man. We all thought you were dead.”

“How long have I been gone?”

“A week,” Noah said quietly, appearing behind the others. Haydn didn’t respond. Instead, he took a running jump into Noah’s arms, burying his head into Noah’s neck.

“You have no idea how much I’ve missed you,” Haydn said into his neck. “I thought I was never going to see you again.”

“Trust me, I know  _ exactly _ how you feel.”

* * *

“How long have they been up there?” Connor asked, rolling his eyes. 

“Three hours.” Dylan huffed. “How am I the only one who can hear them?”

“I wish I couldn’t,” Andrei said quietly. “I’ve never hear anyone be so-”

“I don’t want to hear this,” Mitch said loudly, clapping his hands over his ears.

“Seriously?” Auston laughed. “I’d  _ love _ to hear him try to describe them having sex.”

“They’ve been doing that for  _ three hours? _ ” Jack said, sounding almost impressed. “There’s no way Hanny can last that long.”

“Thankfully not, the first two hours was just them talking. I don’t know which one is worse.”

“I think it’s sweet,” Nolan smiled, resting his head on Nico’s shoulder.

“Am I going to have to separate you two? I can’t handle listening to both of you.”

“Lay off, Strome,” Connor said, lightly punching his arm. “If it bothers you so much, just go sleep in the barn.”

“Don’t tempt me.”

“You’re the worst,” Mitch laughed. “Can’t you just be happy for them?”

“ _ I am _ ,” Dylan snarked back. “All I’m saying is that I don’t appreciate listening to them-.”

“They stopped,” Andrei said, sounding relieved.

“ _ Finally _ .”

 

Thirty minutes later Haydn and Noah joined the group in the living room. 

“Dylan was listen to you,” Mitch said with a smile as they entered the room.

“What?”

“Nothing,” Connor said before Mitch could repeat himself. “Good to see you, Haydn.”

“You too, Davo.” Haydn pulled him into a tight hug before taking a seat next to Noah.”   
“So, you can resurrect people now,” Sebastian said casually.

“Uh, yeah,” Haydn blushed. “I’ve only done it one other time and it wasn’t even a person, it was a dog. To be honest, I thought I dreamt doing it.”

“Did you not know you could predict the future, too?” Mitch asked.

“I didn’t know those dreams were real. Like I told you that night on the porch, I’ve been having that dream for a while. I just thought it was a bunch of random guys until I came here.”

“Well, at any rate,” Charlie said with a smile. “Thanks for crying on us.” Haydn’s face turned red at he awkwardly laughed.

“Yeah, uh, no problem,” he shrugged. “I’m glad I could help.”

“You’re too humble,” Noah said, smirking at him. He grabbed Haydn’s hand, rubbing his thumb over his knuckles. “You’re the reason everyone’s alive, you shouldn’t-”

“I can’t handle listening to you two fuck  _ again _ ,” Dylan said loudly, leaving his seat to sit between them. 

“What do you mean  _ again _ ?” Haydn asked, quickly pulling his hand away from Noah’s grasp. “We didn’t-”

“Andrei and Stromer could hear you two the entire time you were up there.” Auston said simply.

“Why were you listening to us?”

“Trust me, I hated it just as much as you do.” Andrei said, wrinkling his nose. “I have no desire to listen to you two… do that.”

“And we have no desire for you to listen,” Noah snarked back.

* * *

 

The entire group, all thirty-two men and a dog, huddle in the dining that night to catch Haydn up on what he’d missed.

“People have been outraged,” Morgan explained. “Someone recorded our message and put it online, it went viral.”   
“The program was completely shut down and a fund has been set up to help out the families of the mutants who died.” Jake continued. “Government funded, of course.”

“Also,” Mitch picked up. “They opened a new taco place downtown and it’s  _ really  _ good _. _ ”

“You’ll have to take me sometime,” Haydn smiled.

“Yeah, totally! This time we  _ won’t  _ get kidnapped.”

“Too soon,” Noah rolled his eyes. “ _ Way _ too soon.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's all good again! there'll be an epilogue sometime but i'm having a hard time writing one, so it'll be up eventually :) i'll release the full list of everyone's powers once that's out and that'll be it!
> 
> thank you to everyone who's been reading and commenting, it really means a lot! this is the first story i've ever written thats this long, so i'm really happy that people are enjoying it!

**Author's Note:**

> my tumblr is @calefleury if you want to suggest a person and power/talk about the fic!
> 
> thanks for reading <3


End file.
